Support for Ukraine

By Albrecht Henckel von Donnersmarck (T), Year 12

When I first heard about the war in Ukraine, I was shocked, and so was the Ampleforth school community. As a catholic school, we wanted to take action and try to help the refugees and suffering people receive the aid they needed to survive and cross the borders to a safe Europe. We were all looking for an outlet to give focus to our need to respond to the crisis. Luckily, we have the opportunity here at Ampleforth to respond to such a situation through our school charity named FACE-FAW.

FACE-FAW stands for Friendship and Aid Central and Eastern Europe, Friendship and Aid the World. This name neatly captures the situation we felt: friendship is the motivation to help and aid our response, the desire to take action and fundraise. It was in this spirit, as we saw refugees travelling miles to cross borders that we decided to undertake a whole school walk to show solidarity. It was very moving, because we all walked for one reason, which was in support of those refugees walking day and night to get to safety. A parade of all the different houses and their colours made their way up onto Gilling hill, where we crossed the muddy and wet forest. This helped us to imagine, in a small way, some of the hardships that refugees might be exposed to.

When we made our way back up through the Valley, with the astonishing site of Ampleforth College and the Abbey Church at its heart, it reminded me of a pilgrimage. In a pilgrimage the main thing is not the finishing point, but it is the walk itself. In this walk we walked as friends and as supporters for those who were at the same time crossing the borders in Ukraine. Through the generosity of our supporters, we were able to raise over £10,000, which we sent, through Cafod, to Caritas Ukraine.