Ratcliffe College Foundation raises £80,000 to help Ukrainian families

The Ratcliffe College Ukrainian Crisis Appeal was launched just six weeks ago, back in the middle of March, to support children and their families fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Old Ratcliffian, Peter Daley, who was passionate about the appeal, generously promised to donate up to £20,000 to match fund whatever we raised through the appeal. In those six weeks 113 donors, including parents, staff and Old Ratcliffians have together raised an incredible £18,116.50.

We are also very excited to announce that Leicestershire based company, Uptonsteel, have generously stepped in and offered not only to make up the shortfall to the original £20,000 target but also to then double the combined fundraising total. This means the grand total raised for the appeal will be an incredible £80,000. This is a truly wonderful response and, on behalf of those refugees who are going to benefit, we would like to say a very heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Uptonsteel, Mr Daley and everyone who has made a contribution to this appeal.

Our hope is that this money will, over the next couple of years, allow us to support three or four Ukrainian families with school-age children, to provide much needed support with their re-location, food, and secure accommodation, possibly with education here at Ratcliffe and helping them to settle into a safer life either here in Leicester or elsewhere.

In addition to the financial appeal, the Ratcliffe College Chaplaincy Team organised a collection for urgently required items. Together, students, parents and staff donated £6,967 worth of items including: 558 toothbrushes/toothpaste, 206 body wash/shower gel, 45 bottles of children’s medicine, 331 female sanitary products and 130 boxes of ibuprofen/paracetamol.  The total of 3,937 items were carefully labelled, boxed up and taken to the Leicester Ukrainian Community Centre, who are delivering these much-needed items to the Polish/Ukrainian borders.

Many thanks to everyone who has so generously responded to our appeal.