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.
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.”
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.
