29-MAR: LVIV ORPHANS VISIST THE ZOO…
29 March 2022
Today was a special day.
It was all about the kids (and a bit about the animals)…
After the emotional and physical exhaustion from hearing story after story about devastation and frantic, week-long fleeing-under-fire during yesterday’s transfer of 50-odd refugees from war-torn eastern Ukraine (Mariupol, Kiev, Kharkiv, Irpin, etc.), Dan and Yulia had no time to rest...
Instead, they set off in the morning to an orphanage in Lviv with another bus to take some children to the local zoo for a day of ‘normalcy’ (Roger and Anna remained in Warsaw, supporting refugees from the previous day’s epic mission to relocate, access medical support, find their feet in a new ‘world’, and get some much deserved rest).
Dan had had an idea, “no one goes to the zoo in a War, right? ...then who’s paying to look after the animals?” He’d also been assisting an orphanage with the coordination of mass-evacuations from Lviv. He pitched his idea to take the kids out for a ‘day trip’. The nun at the orphanage was beside herself with tearful joy when offered this opportunity. The Zoo owner wanted to offer free admission to all the kids. Um, no way! Thanks buddy, nice gesture — but the whole point was to support the kids AND put some money into the zoo (opinions about zoos aside, animals need feeding and kids need the chance to be kids).
So, the orphans were loaded up into the bus. A range of personalities emerged from fearful and shy to brazen and bratty — you know, kids being kids!
Stories unfolded throughout the day. One 15 year old had driven themselves from Mariupol alone to seek refuge…
Despite the grim circumstances, a great day was had by all and followed-up by a BBQ in the afternoon (thanks for the loan of the barbie, Roger — didn’t burn the snags!). Channel 9 were going to film the whole shebang, but alas, the team were assigned to another story and missed out on all the fun!
Dan spoke a little bit about the day with Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little on Hit Network (Fox FM) | Carrie & Tommy (7 min on-air interview — chat about the value of ‘zoo day’ starts at ~3.5 mins):
Stay tuned for more if/when Dan and/or Yulia have time to provide their take on events… We hope you can appreciate the lack of images in this story out of respect for the privacy of the children.
Help us to keep going …
Help us continue providing relief to big and little kids in Ukraine by donating and sharing our story.
We will keep you updated so you know where the money is going. But we need support to keep this up!
DONATE & SHARE: bit.ly/ukraine-warsaw
Keep it up, champs. We love you.
Back to: COMPLETED MISSIONS
