The collection stand at Brookfield Primary School

CHILDREN in the war-torn Ukrainian city of Kherson will be waking up on Christmas morning to find presents waiting – courtesy of young people at Brookfield Primary School.

This week, pupils at the Highgate Newtown school used their annual winter fair to buy gifts, wrap them and then pass them on to the New Journal to transport them 2,300 miles through Europe. We have teamed up with food aid providers Food for All, who are heading to Ukraine on December 22 to deliver the presents.

Organiser Peter O’Grady is driving a truck-load of generators to the bombed-out city, which has no electricity or running water in the middle of a fiercely cold winter – and with Russian troops digging in nearby, danger is not far away. Mr O’Grady, who drove to Ukraine earlier this year to help establish food kitchens for refugees, has a team of volunteers on the ground.

This is the Camden Town-based charity’s seventh trip and they currently run nine kitchens in war zones, and two more for refugees in Wroclaw, Poland, and Prague in the Czech Republic.

He said: “We know what they need now is ways of helping keep warm, ways to ensure those that are sick or injured have the best care possible, able to provide warming, sustaining meals – and that’s really hard without electricity.

“We have already established nine food stations. Now we are fundraising to buy new generators to get there as soon as we can.”

The charity’s patron, singer Chrissie Hynde, has already pledged £25,000 to the cause. Mr O’Grady said: “We are short of 15 generators to power the struggling food relief projects this Christmas. If anyone is in a position to help buy us a generator or has a spare generator in working condition, we can put it to good use.”

For more details on how to help, see: https://www.justgiving.com and search for Peter O’Grady, or email dcarrier@camdennew journal.co.uk