Kind-hearted children send ‘bags of love’ to youngsters in war zone
PRIMARY 2/3 at Lundavra Primary School is sending ‘ bags of love’ to refugees in Syria ‘to tell the children they are not forgotten’.
The youngsters, with the help of teacher and deputy head Katrina Kelly filled 20 bags with goodies to send to Aleppo.
Each bag contained pencils and paper, halal sweets, and cuddly and outdoor toys, which many of the children generously donated themselves.
The pupils each wrote a little note to the Syrian children which went in the bags along with coloured pictures.
Miss Kelly said: ‘We were quite overwhelmed by the response we had. We were hoping and expecting to gather enough donations to make up five bags but we ended up with 20 and we also had things left over which we donated to local charity shops.
‘The class as a whole decided that they would do something for the Syrian refugees. The children do enterprise and social enterprise projects in which they made and sold things at our Christmas fair to raise money, but it was important to give something back.’
Miss Kelly added: ‘I found information about the Bags of Love project on Facebook from UK Action for Refugees. The money we made selling things at the Christmas fair was used for buying sweets, which had to be halal. As you can imagine, it’s not easy to find halal sweets in Fort William, so we had to order them online.’
The class is still trying to find a local courier willing to collect the bags, which need to be sent to Cornwall before being distributed to the Syrian children, the cost of which will be covered by the money raised by the children as well.