The chairman of a Tayside charity who helped take 29 Ukrainian orphans to safety in Poland has opened up about his long and emotional journey.
Perth-based Steven Carr is joined by two people from his charity Dnipro Kids, which was set up by fellow Hibs supporters after they travelled to the city of the same name in 2005 for a UEFA Cup match.
Steven left Scotland for Ukraine last week and has been working ever since to help as many of the orphans as he can to safety.
The charity supports 80 orphans in venues across the city, found in the south-east of Ukraine and about 500 kilometres south-east of the country capital Kyiv.
The orphanages they stay in are managed by the charity.
So far Steven and his team have rescued 29 children, all aged between six and 17, who were sure on their decision to evacuate.
It comes after he arranged a collection point at Dens Park in Dundee earlier this month, to help children in Ukraine.
Steven said he has been on the go constantly since he arrived and has not had much sleep.
‘These kids don’t know if they’re going to come back or not’
He said: “I’ve not had the chance to sit and think and process anything that I am feeling at the moment.
“Something needs to be done to help these people, we’ve got that done.
“It has been a very emotional time.
“These kids have had to pack their whole life into one suitcase and they don’t know if they’re going to come back or not.”
The first step of their journey started on Tuesday, a 20 hour train journey to Lviv in the west of Ukraine. There they met a coach and travelled the rest of the journey to Poland.
The coach crossed the border on Thursday evening after a 14-hour drive, six of those spent passing through border control.
The delay at the border was due to huge queues from the amount of people wanting to leave Ukraine due to the ongoing invasion.
Steven said: “Everyone understands the situation and that it is a very difficult one.
“But people have been excellent and really helpful and understanding.”
‘Heartbreaking’
Describing what he saw at border control, Steven said: “Young mothers are carrying babies or are with a couple of toddlers and walking up to try and get through into Poland, it’s heart-breaking.
“Mothers and children are allowed through, there is excellent humanitarian aid on the other side to give them the things they need because most have hardly anything on them.
“The whole of Europe, I think, has responded really well to the situation. The humanitarian aid is excellent.
“It’s great to see the response. It gives you hope in humanity.”
Eighteen more kids, who were unsure about leaving but soon decided to evacuate, are expected to arrive in Poland early on Saturday morning, bringing the total number rescued to 47.
The other 33 children are staying in Dnipro. Steven said some of them are too scared to leave and the route they would face.
The journey to Poland was not an easy one, having faced a shortage of buses and the challenge of packing everyone on to overcrowded trains.
Steven said: “Due to the number of people trying to evacuate and get on a train all at once it’s chaos over there.
“In Dnipro there are only two trains a day.”
He said: “They are prioritising children, so when we all eventually got on the train I then thought about organising our evacuation to Poland.
“A majority of the kids are now safe and we have told the ones who stayed that if at any point they feel like they want to leave that we will do our upmost to ensure that can happen.”
After arriving in Poland the group stayed in temporary accommodation on Thursday night.
Steven and the children were all on their way to new accommodation on Friday.
Hosting parties and taking them on excursions are among the work Dnipro Kids does with the orphans but due to the coronavirus pandemic Steven and his team have not been able to visit Ukraine since 2019.
Following the Russian invasion, he decided that he wanted to do something to help.
He has praised all of the support he has received, both in Poland and back home.
Steven said: “My phone has been inundated with messages of support and phone calls from people, friends, family, people I work with, just everyone all asking what they can do to help.
‘Just a small charity trying to make a difference’
“We are just a small charity just trying to make a small difference to the people we met and bonded with during that first trip.
“Then the trouble started and we thought what can we do to get some people evacuated and into other accommodation.
“We thought we weren’t going to be able to support them but then messages and donations started flooding in.
“Organisations in Poland have been a huge help, one donated the bus we are travelling on and helped sort the hotel we are going to be staying in. It’s been phenomenal all the support.”
Online donations can be made at justgiving.com/dniproappeal
