A Lanarkshire rotary club have helped give a warm welcome to Ukrainians affected by the ongoing conflict with Russia.
Cambuslang Rotary Club held a special Ukrainian welcome evening recently that was attended by Rotarians, members of the Inner Wheel, and other invited guests.
The evening began with a meal, before President Robert Dickie introduced the two guest speakers.
First up was John Waddell from Rotary District who spoke about how West of Scotland Rotary clubs were responding to the Ukrainian crisis.
The Rotary District has been given £20 000 of matched funding from Rotary Foundation which has been distributed to a variety of club projects sending aid to Ukraine and also helped in assisting refugees in Scotland.
The second speaker was Tetyana Barnes from the Glasgow group Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine who spoke very movingly about the difficulties faced by refugees arriving in Scotland.
The Glasgow group has already sent lorry loads of humanitarian aid out to Ukraine and set up two hub centres in Glasgow to support displaced Ukrainians arriving in the city.
Tetyana, who lives in Cambuslang, has many friends and family still in Ukraine, and her sister Irina who attended the evening was one of the many forced to flee her home when the war began.
Despite the difficulties, Tetyana reported that Ukrainians had commented on the warm welcome they had received from the Scottish people.
A club spokesman added: "President Robert presented Tetyana with 60 £25 Aldi vouchers which the Cambuslang club had purchased with proceeds from their recent Burns supper, and a matched grant from Rotary Foundation.
"The vouchers will be distributed to Ukrainian refugees settling in the Cambuslang area.
"The club would like to thank Councillor Robert Brown, John Waddell and Tetyana Barnes for their help in setting up this initiative and all the friends and family who bought raffle tickets and donated money to fund it."
*Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.
