10/ A personal plea and print sale for my Ukrainian family & friends
Print sale to directly help my Ukrainian family and friends
28 days ago russia attacked my wife’s country, Ukraine.
26 days ago the family sheltered in their basement in Kyiv.
24 days ago they packed one bag each and escaped.
3 children, a grandmother, a wife and husband.
20 days ago they crossed the border.
1 night in Hungary.
1 night in Germany.
1 night in Switzerland.
On the move, not stopping.
I joined them in France to support them and help with visas to come to the UK, to be with us.
In Paris I sat at the table at 1.30am, in the small one bed apartment, 6 of them asleep in front of me, making their visa applications, trying to work out how to wake them and tell them the grandmother was not, according to the forms, part of the family.
But I made it work and 4 days ago, they arrived.
Not all the family. Some remain, stuck in a village, for 20 days now, taken over by russians. No power, no sources of new food.
Friends have been separated with some still in Ukraine, now taking up arms instead of cameras and computers. Wives and children now across the border throughout Europe.
For those that made it to the UK we are working on housing, schools, language, community, support.
But all their means of income has gone.
As well as the country wide support I have been involved in I want to be able to help the family and friends directly with not only emotional support but financially, so have set up this small set of 7 images, made in Ukraine over the last 3 years.
Of each sale £100 will go to the family and friends who have made it out of Ukraine and are still there.
One print will buy shoes for the 3 children…they have just the pair they traveled with.
Another print will help them to do a family shop at the fruit and vegetable market and Lidl for a week and buy school uniforms.
It is that simple.
If you can, please do buy a print so I can help them more.
Thank you and best wishes,
Marc
