Estonia Friends raise funds for more AVP
Plan to run programme to ease tensions between local ethnic Russians and Ukrainian war refugees
The Tallinn Friends Group have said they want to expand the Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) seminars that they already run in Estonia to local Russians.
Roland Rand, coordinator and project leader, said that ‘tensions between [local ethnic Russians in Estonia] and Ukrainian war refugees have increased. There is distrust and contempt among the locals’. The group is planning to use the same programme that they have run in Odessa. The group is seeking funding, with a preliminary estimate of around €1800. Roland Rand said that every donor can receive the poetry book On Being Together or Unity by Merle Veesalu-Rand for free. All funds for the book, priced €12.50, go to support Ukrainian refugees (email info@randdesign.ee for details).
For info on how to donate directly to the Tallinn Friends Group, email roland.rand@mail.ee.
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has created a webpage with fundraising details for Quaker work to support Ukrainian refugees. The European and Middle East Section (EMES) of FWCC is working in partnership with the British Friends of QCEA and the Central European Gathering (of Quakers) to help raise funds for this work. The page on https://fwccemes.org/news/quaker-support-for-ukraine also includes sample prices of much-needed items.
Edinburgh Quakers have also outlined how Friends can help with the Ukraine crisis in their ‘Terrace Talk’ newsletter. Friend Heather Stacey of Portobello & Musselburgh Meeting, who is involved with a charity that has links with Ukraine, suggests the Red Cross, Doctors of the World, and the BEARR Trust as reliable organisations where funds will go where they are needed.
Edinburgh Friends also highlight an online petition ‘No Nuclear War Over Ukraine’ on the Avaaz website calling on NATO and Russia to renounce the possible use of nuclear weapons in the conflict.
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