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CAFUKR Events

25th March, 2025
Chorleywood Businessman Wins Ukraine Support Award

Pierre receiving the award

Pierre Bosdet, who runs Chorleywood’s PC Fixup and founded the Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine charity, was delighted to win the Ukraine Support Award at the Heart Hertfordshire Hero Awards 2025. The event, run by Heart Radio, took place on 21 March at the Tewinbury Farm riverside farm and hotel near Welwyn.

The Ukraine Support Award, sponsored by Hertfordshire County Council, honours people or groups who have gone the extra mile to support Ukrainians during a time of crisis. It recognises kindness, generosity, and actions that have made a real difference.

Pierre set up Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine just days after the war began on 24 February 2022. The charity collects money and essential supplies for a partner organisation in Brovary, near Kyiv, which supports children with special needs, orphans, injured people, and families who have lost their homes or loved ones. Closer to home, the charity also helps Ukrainian families living in and around Chorleywood – mostly mothers with young children.

“This award is for the whole team,” said Pierre as he accepted it. “In Chorleywood, we’ve got Alina and her amazing team of Ukrainian packing ladies. In Kent, there’s Sue and her crew who sort the shipping. And in Ukraine, Anastasia makes sure everything we send gets to the people who need it most.”

Saturday March 8th, 2025

Stefania Foundation launch concert at St Mary’s Church

St Mary's Church, Chesham

The concert included a Charlie Chaplin silent movie, “The Kid”, with live piano accompaniment by Dr Bohdan Reshetilov, a celebrated Ukrainian classical pianist and composer. All money raised will go towards the first Stefania Foundation delivery to Ukraine, scheduled for April. The new medical equipment will be selected by surgeons from 16 hospitals in the east of Ukraine, and purchased directly from the NHS at prices equal to what UK hospitals are charged, based on a unique Stefania / NHS partnership agreement.

The concert also included a Ukraine opera singer for the Ukraine national anthem, a live speech from a senior Ukrainian Doctor in Ukraine, and a one minute silence to remember lives lost in the conflict.

Pierre Bosdet of Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine made a short guest speech by way of Stefania Foundation thanking us for our help during their setup phase.

https://stefaniafoundation.org/

June 2024

Pierre's trip to Kyiv to visit "From Dreams to Reality"

Click the button on the right to read about Pierre's trip to Kyiv to visit "From Dreams to Reality", the charity in Ukraine to which Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine has been delivering aid for over two years now.

Read about the trip

Hilltops Ukrainian Support Community

Kids Story from Mariupol

Click image to watch the video

Hilltops Ukrainian Support Community are a group of people living in the Chiltern Hills that have formed a community to help Ukrainian people, escaping from war, to settle in the Chilterns in the most welcoming and empowering way possible.

https://hilltopusc.org/

The county that became a hotspot for Ukrainian refugees

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cew5r4k7ed1o

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Saturday 24th September, 2022

In aid of Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine

Mozart Requiem

+ Gounod Petite Symphonie for Winds

+ Elgar Serenade for Strings

Chorleywood Choral Society / Chorleywood Orchestra / Chess Players

Conducted by Daniel Hogan

Saturday 24th September 2022 at 7pm

St Andrew’s Church, Quickley Lane

Tickets £15, Concession £7

www.chorleywoodmusic.com

Left to Right: Fiona Miller-McFarlane (Chorleywood Orchestra), Sarah Barnett (Chorleywood Choral Society), Andrew McFarlane (Chorleywood Orchestra), & Helen Heneker (Chorleywood Orchestra) presenting Pierre Bosdet of CAFUKR with a cheque for £1,125 from their charity concert.

Poem dedicated to Chorleywood Aid for Ukraine by the local author

For Artem and the Children of Ukraine

Yellow Cement Truck

A little boy of not yet three,
Looks up to camera and through it, me
And you, and them, and us and we
The world must know his story

His face is scarred, his wide-eyes staring
A ward with other children sharing
A tiny chest, punctured with hate
Their missiles don’t discriminate

With silent eyes he reaches through
The camera lens to me and you
And them and us, and we and thee
This little boy who’s not yet three

For what should young life know of war?
The bloodshed, terror, pain and gore
His innocence they took away
When they invaded on that day

Then into focus we can see
A shadow of what used to be
For by his side a favourite toy
A yellow, cement truck for a little boy

The shrapnel wounds will fade in time
And peace will come; the sun will shine
But hidden scars more deeply set
May linger on for some time yet

And through a small child’s eyes reflected
A senseless, bloody war rejected
By you and me, and us and them
And every child like Artem

If I could to the future see
I pray this dear, sweet boy will be
In full health, playing happily
With his yellow truck, at just turned three

Based on a BBC News report from a children’s hospital in Zaporizhzia on 20/3/22

‘Yellow Cement Truck’ is based on a BBC news report from a children’s hospital in Zaporizhzia on 20th March 2022.

In the same news report and in the bed next to Artem, Masha, a beautiful fifteen year old girl, lies traumatised. Her right leg has been amputated and her fractured right arm is being held together with a metal frame. She wouldn’t eat or drink for several days after sustaining her injuries.

Also in the report, a doctor tells of a little boy of six with shrapnel wounds to his skull, who saw his mum burn to death in their car when it was hit by a missile. With no emotion the boy tells his dad: “Dad, buy me a mum. I want someone to take me to school.”

If this poem resonates with you and you would like to make a donation, please refer to our Donations page.

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