This week we received a letter from the town acknowledging our “extraordinary” effort to help the Ukrainians at the beginning of the crisis. We were one of the first organisations to put together information for the refugees. We set up a school bag donation scheme in Lucerne (with the help of No More Walking organisation), a clothes and medicine drop off point for goods to be sent to the Ukraine, as well as councelling groups with mother tongue Ukrainian therapists to help those in need, as well as offering job councelling sessions in Ukrainian.
What we learned is that the Ukrainian people are incredibly resilient and, in a short time, they had set up their own community centres in the region so that we could scale back our efforts and help other groups in need.
In average, a refugee disposes of CHF 12.- a day to cover their day-to-day needs and, with Christmas coming we are aware that although safe the Ukrainian children will not be receiving gifts. So we are ending the year with another initiative and we need YOUR HELP.
We would like to make sure that every child receives at least one present this Christmas. There are an estimated 300 Ukrainian refugee children living in the canton. We would love to give every one a present but let’s start with at least 150 presents.
How can you help? By going through your children’s old toys, pick out the gently loved ones (or the unopened ones), tidy them up if necessary and wrap them in some festive paper, add a tag stating the age group this present is suitable for and, if required, for which gender. Then drop them off at the LiLi Centre during our opening hours by no later than December 17. You can see our opening hours by going here. Please do bring the presents pre-wrapped, we do not have the capacity to wrap them ourselves!
We are coordinating with various organisations for pick up throughout the town and in the canton.
Together we can make a real difference and, hopefully, bring smiles on children’s faces.
The LivingIn Association and the LiLi Centre are not for profit organisations entirely run by volunteers. We rely on people’s financial support to run our programmes, so if you would like to donate to our organisation please go to our donation page. No donation is ever too small or too big!
