Children of Ukraine Event

Thank you to all students and parents for their kind feedback and enthusiasm following the event we held last week.

Many of the children depicted in Shahida Tulaganova’s documentary ‘Children of Ukraine’ have fled to other countries so it was particularly touching to hear St Mary’s Ukrainian school choir, consisting of refugee children aged 7-15, perform before the film.

We are looking forward to developing our partnership with St Mary’s School to provide even more support to the incredible educators like their Head Teacher Inna Hryhorovych.

As the first anniversary of a 3-days war against Ukraine is coming up, St Paul’s School will hold a series of events and programmes in which students of all ages will be able to participate.

Please take a look at Shahida’s and Inna’s fundraising appeals and give generously to help children scarred by the biggest European war since WWII.

A report by Nathan, Lower Eighth Pauls4All committee member, on the Children of Ukraine event:

Accompanied by the Pauls4All committee for conversation beforehand, the children from St Mary’s Ukrainian school in Holland Park prepared their vocal chords for the opening of the evening. Nina Gaidamashchuk introduced the choir, ranging from 7 to 15 years old, who delivered a rendition of the State Anthem of Ukraine and set the stage for Shahida Tulaganova’s Children of Ukraine that followed.

The harrowing yet eye-opening ITV documentary followed the lives of a few young Ukrainian families through the documentation of the children and their experiences throughout the horrors of Russia’s invasion of their home. The accounts of the children’s experiences highlighted their resilience and bravery within key, but now devastated, cities including Kyiv, Mariupol and Kharkiv. A particularly moving moment that struck the whole audience was when 18-year-old Vyacheslav described his plan to go back to Mariupol and find the best headstone to put on his mother’s grave after having lost both his parents during the war.

We were then lucky to have a live Q&A session with Shahida Tulaganova, director and producer, and Inna Hryhorovych, head of the St Mary’s Ukrainian school. The audience gained insight into the filming process, the children’s current living conditions as well as information about how the war has drastically changed St Mary’s.

Thank you to Shahida Tulaganova and her team, Inna Hryhorovych and the St Mary’s choir and teachers, and Nina Gaidamashchuk for creating such a successful evening.