A GROUP of schoolchildren from a Scottish island have helped to raise money for a charity working to provide power for hospitals in Ukraine.
Pupils from Raasay Primary School organised an afternoon tea with the purpose of raising funds for Repower Ukraine at the end of term earlier this year.
Overall, the school helped raise £250 for RePower Ukraine and pupils can now see the benefits of the charity’s work.
READ MORE: UN committee likens Israeli practices and policies in Gaza to genocide
RePower Ukraine aims to provide emergency power to Ukrainians with renewable sources during the war and post-war period.
We previously told how it has been backed by the Scottish Islands Federation, with an initial funding drive last year helping to raise more than £2500.
Specifically, the funds from Raasay helped to fund a project for Kharkiv Children’s Hospital.
Speaking to the Sunday National from Ukraine, head of the project department at the charity Iryna Zahorodnia said: “Kharkiv is located near the border with Russia so they can get to the city with missiles in 30 seconds.
“Our forces can’t protect the city from the destruction with the missiles. There are several power plants which supply energy to the region and these have been destroyed.”
The charity installed an advanced solar power plant with an energy storage system at the hospital, allowing for energy independence and, crucially, uninterrupted power to critical units in the absence of external power.
Zahorodnia explained: “We focused our efforts on helping hospitals and installed solar power plants with a battery energy-storage system.
“When it has a system on the roof, it can predict how much electricity it will have when the grid is off.
“Thanks to the technology of the backup system, when the energy is cut off from the essential grid, it’s only milliseconds between switching so medical equipment won’t stop operating.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump and the rest of the world – what can we expect?
Amid such a difficult period, Zahorodnia is particularly pleased to see support coming from Scotland.
She said: “There are people out there who share our pain. There are children in Scotland who want to make something good for people in difficult conditions.
“It’s about believing in humanity. Now is a difficult period for all Ukrainians and we understand how cruel people can be when yesterday they were your friends.
“There is a world out there with people who want to help us. It’s important for resilience and will help people keep fighting for their freedom and for their life.”
Click HERE for more information on donating to RePower Ukraine and to find out more about the work the team are doing.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here