Berwick Mayor letter on the conflict in Ukraine: 'Even the smallest donation can help'

We had all faced the New Year with such hope for better times. The pandemic restrictions were relaxed, bringing the opportunity to meet the people we love.

We could socialise in our homes and meet with our neighbours, go out to lunch, go to the pub, even plan a holiday. Maybe the pandemic taught us the true value of these things, which we took for granted two years ago.

Sadly, the joy has once again been snatched away as we watch in horror the tragedy unfolding before us in Ukraine.

I’m sure like myself and the Mayoress, many of you can’t begin to imagine the fear and dread, the ice-cold conditions, the hunger and the pain of so many lives being so relentlessly and cruelly torn apart.

For our Ukrainian neighbours to see their homes so lovingly put together being reduced to rubble, along with all the memories they contain, is unthinkable.

Such dreadful cruelty is being inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who are now having to choose between fleeing for their lives or staying and fighting for the right to choose how they want to live.

What a dreadful decision to be forced to make, against such terrible odds.

Like many of you, we find it hard to know how we can help and feel so helpless in the face of such adversity. We can only guess at their needs, be it money, bandages, medication, water, food, shelter, and so on.

While people are fleeing war, there can be no permanency in the situation. They must make their way to whatever safe haven can be found, only taking as much as they can carry – often travelling with children or elderly and often unwell people.

Our friends in Berwick’s twin town in Poland, Trzcianka, are already gearing up to support and accommodate refugees and we have reached to them to offer our support and help.

In these uncertain times, if you have not yet made up your mind how you can in some small way help the people so terribly damaged by this awful onslaught, Northumberland County Council is suggesting donations can be made via the British Red Cross at www.redcross.org.uk or Disasters Emergency Committee at www.dec.org.uk

Even the smallest donation can help.

Above all, we pray for a swift end to the suffering and this appalling conflict.

Thank you

Coun Alan Bowlas, Mayor of Berwick