Hibs fans' Ukraine fundraiser heads towards £50,000 as Dnipro Kids chief helps evacuation efforts

A Ukraine fundraiser set up by the Hibs-linked Hanlon Stevenson Foundation (HSF) and backed by several unofficial Easter Road fans’ groups is closing in on the £50,000 mark.

Hibs and St Johnstone show their support for Ukraine ahead of the recent Scottish Premiership meeting between the two teams at Easter Road

HSF had already pledged to hand over the proceeds from their Sauzée 4 Prize Draw, held in conjunction with the return to Edinburgh of Hibs legend Franck Sauzée at the charity’s gala dinner later this year, to the Dnipro Kids charity, set up following Hibs’ meeting with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the 2005 UEFA Cup and a number of other clubs and organisations have contributed to HSF’s efforts.

At the time of writing, more than £44,800 had been raised and with the fundraiser running until March 14 there is still plenty of time to donate.

City rivals Hearts donated the money raised from sales of their matchday programme ahead of their 2-0 victory over Aberdeen on March 2, while St Johnstone are raffling off a signed Sergei Baltacha shirt with all proceeds going towards Dnipro Kids.

Baltacha was born in Mariupol and came through Metalist Kharkiv’s youth academy and played for Dynamo Kyiv before moving to the UK.

Evacuation efforts for Dnipro children

Meanwhile Stevie Carr, who founded the Dnipro Kids charity and serves as its chairman, has travelled to Medyka on the Poland-Ukraine border where he is helping to co-ordinate efforts to evacuate around 70 children between the ages of six and 17 from the orphanage in Dnipro.

Stevie is working hard to arrange transport and accommodation for the children in the face of uncertainty in their homeland following Russia’s invasion.

Late on Tuesday he confirmed that around 30 of the children were on a train to Lviv in the western part of the country en route to Poland.

Speaking to STV earlier this week he said: “It’s very emotional. It would be fantastic for them to come over the border and to meet them here.

“It’s also very frustrating because we can’t give them an end-game. We’re trying to get them out and hopefully we’ll get them over the border and then take it from there.

“I’ll do everything I can to get these children out and to get them into a safe place."

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