Amersham Rotarians, united for Ukraine Buckinghamshire • Round & About Magazine

Liz Nicholls

Peter McLoughlin tells us how Amersham Rotarians recently learned how Ukrainian heritage & culture is being protected thanks to community support

The Rotary Club of Amersham was delighted to welcome Inna Hryhorovych MBE, the Headteacher of St Mary’s Ukrainian Schools and the CEO of Ukrainian St Mary’s Trust in London and Tanya Orlova, her colleague who is a clinical psychologist, chair of school PTA, psychologist and a founder of 2BWell.

Inna offered a brief history of St Mary’s Ukrainian school, based in Holland Park, London, which was founded in 1955.While it initially had only one location, the school has grown to 14 locations across the London area and Glasgow since 2022.

To meet the needs of the many displaced Ukrainian children now living in the Amersham area, St Mary’s has set up a local location. Every Sunday morning between 9.30am and 12.30pm, a group of 92 Ukrainian children meet at The Amersham School. They learn about Ukrainian history and culture as well as maintaining their language skills.

These are children whose parents – in most cases only their mothers – have fled the Putin attack on Ukraine. Although safely settled in the Chilterns and the majority in mainstream schools these children clearly need to safeguard their Ukrainian culture and heritage because at some future date they wish to return.

St Mary’s, in addition to providing cultural support, is also able to provide psychological support for children who may have suffered direct or indirect trauma as a result of the assault on their homeland.

Rotary in Amersham has already supported Ukrainian children in local schools by providing Ipads with a programme to help with their understanding of English.

Last year one Amersham Rotarian organised a screening of Paddington Bear in Ukrainian at the National Film School in Beaconsfield. Over 100 parents and children attended. The surprise was that the voiceover was done by a Ukrainian actor who is now the President of Ukraine!

After the presentation the Rotary Club made a donation of £500 to St Mary’s.