The Five Rivers Family walks for Ukraine

Recently we invited Five Rivers’ children, foster carers, colleagues, family, and friends to take part in a fundraiser for UNICEF, who have been helping children and families affected by war in Ukraine. UNICEF provides more children with clean water, life-saving food, vaccines, education, and protection from violence than any other humanitarian organisation.

At Five Rivers, we know the impact not having a stable home can have on children and families, and like the rest of the world, we are saddened to see the situation in Ukraine, which was why it felt important to us to do our small, but important bit in helping those who are in urgent need of support.

For this fundraiser, we challenged those who wanted to take part to walk, cycle, run or swim the distance between our Head Office in Salisbury, and the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. The distance equated to approximately 1,577 miles which we were able to reach, and exceed in ten days, due to the motivation and efforts of everyone involved.

Our goal was to raise over £1,577 for UNICEF to match the goal of our collective distance, which we are proud to have exceeded. If you would like to donate, you are still able to add to this total on our Just Giving page.

As well as raising funds for this vital humanitarian work, those involved were able to benefit from the exercise for both their physical and mental health, helping them to cope better with these distressing times.

The response to our fundraiser was overwhelming but not surprising – it was great to see people come together in support of the children of Ukraine.

At times like these, it can be difficult to know what to do as you can often feel powerless to help. Whilst our efforts don’t change the situation, we know that we have taken action to help make a difference where we could.

Over the ten days of the fundraiser, people across the Five Rivers Family were able to come together by taking part and sharing their efforts.

They were able to do as little or as many miles as they wanted and shared pictures of their walks with one another over the joint Teams chat from different locations throughout the country. This level of connection and getting outside made this fundraiser a positive and heart-warming experience for all involved.

We want to thank all of those who participated and donated to the cause. It is because of you we were able to make a difference.