Generous donations from Weymouth residents have made a real difference to people living in war-torn Ukraine.

The Weymouth Prayerhouse is continuing to work with a network of churches and voluntary organisations in Ukraine, delivering tailored support at a grass roots level.

Friend of the church, Mark Wade, now lives in Ukraine and, with a self-funded team of four people from Prayerhouse, helped set up a feeding centre and reception point for Internally Displaced Persons. It was feeding more than 1,000 people per day at the height of the refugee crisis.

Those in the Prayerhouse team helping with the project were Jonathan Matthews, Peter Millner and Emily Broad.

Prayerhouse Pastor Paul White was also involved in setting up the feeding centre and has made five further trips to Ukraine, supporting fleeing and returning refugees; helping to dismantle a big tent near Lviv and move it to the centre of the city of Rivne, and speaking in churches, delivering aid, and helping with the evacuation of a young family from shelling in Bakhmut.

Another Prayerhouse responder Brett Britton has helped Paul and Mark on a trip to Donbas delivering aid. Brett even drove an ambulance from britishukraine.org loaded with medical aid from Europe to Lviv and later returned with an ambulance convoy of eight others. Mark, meanwhile, has visited the stricken Kherson region delivering three tonnes of aid following the destruction of the dam.

Throughout the course of their work the Prayerhouse team has made many Ukrainian friends and contacts throughout the whole country.

Brett intends to continue delivering ambulances. He is now a trained first responder and is pursuing ongoing training for coping with medical emergencies in warzones, training to be a trainer.

He will deliver medical donations received from a local healthcare provider, and Williams Medical, Telford.

Prayerhouse continues to give financial support to Mark and at Christmas 2022 ran a successful fundraising campaign to buy a nearly new Mercedes Vito minibus to make the long drives to the Donbas from Mukachevo much less arduous.

The Weymouth Prayerhouse is currently planning a conference for pastors, military chaplains and their spouses to be held in the country, as they are not permitted by the government to leave for the duration of the war.

A spokesman said: “The purpose will be to offer a brief respite from the constant pressure of maintaining feeding programmes, managing donations and volunteers, whilst dealing with the personal issues and helping others deal with risk to life, with bereavement, grief, loss and displacement.”

For more information on the Prayerhouse’s work in Ukraine, see the website https://prayerhouse.uk/en/ukraine/ or email paul@prayerhouse.uk