Sussex girl, 9, sells art to raise money for refugees in Ukraine

A nine-year-old from Uckfield is on a mission to raise money for the people of Ukraine by selling signed prints of her painting entitled 'Rainbow Tears'.

Pearl Swift-Vyner has already raised more than £1,300, for those who have been forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine.

It all began last week when Pearl brought home the painting.

Pearl's mum, Fleur Cruz, said: "Pearl came back from her art club with this extraordinary picture of an eye, and I was quite blown away by it because she's nine and it was quite extraordinary.

"So, I started sending it to family, friends, to her teachers.

"And then, the school secretary and her form teacher asked for a signed copy, which got us thinking 'wow, it's quite a phenomenal piece of art'.

"Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and the next morning morning Dan (Pearl's dad) came up with the idea of setting up the just giving page and trying to raise money for charity.

"That's where the idea came from, and it just kind of took off from there through social media.

"We've had people donated who don't know her. It's just amazing.

"I'm super proud of her. To raise money so quickly, in such a short space of time, who knows where it's going to go.

"I just hope it keeps going up and up and people keep donating."

When asked how it felt to help so many people in their time of need, Pearl said: "It feels really good. It's pretty cool."

Pearl's dad, Dan Swift, says the family just wanted to help in some way. He said: "We woke up the other morning to the news that Ukraine had been invaded and we were all in shock.

"We were thinking about how normal families must be being affected and how the situation is rapidly going to become worse as they become refugees.

"Normal life starts to break down with lack of supplies of food and stuff.

"We thought they're going to be needing aid soon."

Pearl is raising money for the British-Ukrainian Aid charity which supports people suffering from the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine by aligning UK and Ukrainian efforts.