Ukraine Refugee Sports Project

Over the last eight weeks, The Change Foundation has been setting up safe play zones for refugee children in Poland as they come over the border from Ukraine, giving parents or guardians time to organise the paperwork and other arrangements they need to move on as quickly as possible. It also allows them to take some time to contact family members left behind, knowing that their children are running around for a few hours with a smile on their faces, making new friends and burning off some energy and anxiety.

Having set up safe zones at the Humanitarian Centre in the Polish border town of Przemysl and continuing to do so across other parts of the Polish border, we are now also planning a series of sports summer camps for recently arrived Ukrainian refugee children into the UK. The plan is to link them together with other Ukrainian children across UK towns and villages and helping them to integrate into their new homes through playing sport with British children in their area.

To help fund both elements of this project, Change Foundation CEO, Andy Sellins, is taking on the mighty Andes mountain range in Colombia in his ‘Andy Over the Andes’ solo cycle ride, a distance of over 600km in 7 days and friends, donors and partners have already been extremely generous and over £25,000 has been raised so far. Through his sponsored cycle ride, Andy is now aiming to double this total to £50,000. The Change Foundation’s charity number – 1046047