Channel 5 to air special programme ‘Ukraine: How YOU Can Help’

Channel 5 will air a one-off programme highlighting the volunteering efforts around the UK for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and showing how viewers can help.

Fronted by Jeremy Vine and produced by ITN Productions, with a mixture of live guests and pre-recorded items the inspirational hour will showcase the impressive efforts of people all over the UK and demonstrate how they are helping to assist the aid effort – with more than 1 million refugees now forced from their homes by the war.

Greg Barnett, Commissioning Editor (VP) for Channel 5:

“Many people at home are watching the news and feeling a sense of helplessness, but many people in Britain are motivated to help Ukraine. This important and inspiring piece of television will highlight the determined efforts of people all across the UK and inform us all on the DEC humanitarian appeal, what help is needed and what it is appropriate to do”

Ukraine: How YOU Can Help will feature a host of famous faces including presenter Nick Knowles, explorer Ben Fogle, singer and broadcaster Jane McDonald and comedian and presenter Susan Calman who will shine a spotlight on initiatives from communities, businesses and determined individuals in the UK.

Pre-recorded packages, produced by in-house production company VIS, will see these much-loved presenters highlighting some of the incredible and inspiring efforts to support the Ukraine from around the country. Channel 5 News correspondents will tell the story from Ukraine and the Polish border where many refugees have now fled. They will meet families who have lost everything, explain why the humanitarian effort is so important and show where the aid goes.

There will also be information about the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which launched on 3rd March and aims to raise money to be spent on aid. DEC charities are in Ukraine as well as neighbouring countries and are working to meet the immediate needs of all refugees and displaced people with food, water, shelter healthcare and protection.

Channel 5:

“The programme will capture the spirit of a determined Britain, while also inspiring people at home and showing them how they can contribute.”

There have already been efforts from the UK including thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country will be given food, warm clothing and a place to stay, thanks to a £50,000 grant to the British Red Cross from the Freemasons. The Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ Charity) and the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) have been monitoring the growing refugee crisis of over a million Ukrainian people who have been forced from their country and hundreds of thousands more who have been internally displaced from their homes.

As the situation in Ukraine deteriorates, trains leaving major cities like Kyiv for the border are packed. Huge queues are growing at border crossing points with reports of many families waiting days in freezing temperatures to reach neighbouring states. If the situation continues to worsen, the UN Refugee Agency has said it fears millions more people could end up seeking safety in other countries.

For over 150 years, the British Red Cross has helped people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. And when the crisis is over, the Red Cross help them recover and move on with their lives. For more information on the British Red Cross please visit www.redcross.org.uk

Already, Red Cross teams in neighbouring countries including Poland, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania, have been providing urgent support to these refugees. In Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already sought safety, the Polish Red Cross has begun to establish temporary accommodation centres for new arrivals which can hold up to 400 people each. Similar responses have begun in Moldova, where in Chisinau, the Moldovan Red Cross has opened a shelter that can house up to 800 people, and in Slovakia, where the Slovak Red Cross has put up tents to house arrivals at the border crossing point in Ubla.

In addition to shelter, Red Cross teams are also providing food, hygiene items and warm clothing to those arriving. The Romanian Red Cross has deployed volunteers from branches along the border to distribute food, water, basic aid items and hygiene products to people in need. In Hungary, the Red Cross has 300 volunteers ready to help people crossing the border, many of whom have been preparing parcels containing bedding and hygiene items, and establishing information and first aid points. Freemasons contributed to the grant through the Masonic Charitable Foundation, which is funded by Freemasons, their families and friends, from across England and Wales.

Luke Tredget, Head of Emergencies, Surge and Technical Advisory from the Red Cross:

“We’re very grateful to the Freemasons for this generous grant which makes a major contribution to the Red Cross relief effort for Ukrainian refugees. Most of those fleeing the fighting are women and children who have been queueing on the border in sub-zero temperatures for as long as 60 hours. They’re in urgent need of support and the Red Cross has teams on the ground doing everything possible to help.”

Tesco also note they have been supporting the Red Cross effort ‘we’re making a donation of £1 million to the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal to support their vital work with refugees and families fleeing the conflict. Our first donations of food, hygiene products and clothing left depots in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Saturday 26 February. We’ll continue to work closely with official relief organisations in all three countries, as well as local governments.’

HomeBargains have also made a donation, they noted ‘Just like all our customers and colleagues, we have been moved by the events that are taking place in Ukraine, causing harm and suffering to countless innocent people.

‘We will continue to provide what support we can to any of our colleagues who have been affected by the events and we have made a donation of £100,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal, which we hope will help to provide the people of Ukraine with some of the essential items that they so desperately need. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the war.’

Ukraine: How YOU Can Help will air on Channel 5 on Friday 11th March at 9pm.