LJMU students help refugees at the Polish/Ukrainian border

MA Wildlife Conservation students Vanessa Grundy, 27 and Alex Donnelly, 27 along with Vanessa’s brother Mike Grundy are currently at the Poland-Ukraine border helping refugees get to safe accommodation in Krakow, and further across Europe, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The trio from the Wirral have worked in Ukraine since 2015 for DEC Camp, a children's camp, whose main office is based in Kyiv, and have made many friends from the country.

Vanessa said, when the group watched what was unfolding in Ukraine, they felt "helpless" and wanted to do something.

They decided to start fundraising money to be able to buy items to take to the Polish/Ukraine border to help refugees and arrived at the border on 8 March. Since then, they have been transporting as many people as they can to safe accommodation in Krakow and plan to continue doing this over for as long as possible.

Vanessa has set up a gofundme page to help their efforts for Ukranian refugees, which you can donate to here.

The Liverpool Echo also published the story of the trio’s fundraising effort.