Wakefield District City of Sanctuary charity buys £450 worth of books for Ukrainian refugees instead of a leaving present for founding trustee

By The Newsroom
Published 9th Feb 2023, 16:30 BST
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The charity, Wakefield District City of Sanctuary, has purchased £450 worth of Russian, Ukrainian and Polish books for the district’s Ukrainian refugees in lieu of a leaving present for one of the organisation’s founding members, Linda Fielding.

Linda left the organisation last year to take a paid job at The Art House in Wakefield after helping to set up the charity 14 years ago.

Members of the charity had a whip around for the much-loved founding member and raised £550 to go towards a leaving gift for Linda. However, she refused any suggestions for a parting present, and so, the charity decided to put the bulk of the money towards purchasing Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish books that will be stocked in Wakefield Library for the district’s Eastern European refugees and asylum seekers to access.

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Volunteer of the organisation, Sarah Connell, said: “Linda told us that she wanted the money that was raised for her to go back into our Asylum Seekers Support Fund. It was suggested to us purchase some foreign language books for Wakefield Library, and that is what we did.

Wakefield District City of Sanctuary presented Linda Fielding with the books that were bought for Ukrainian refugees in lieu of a leaving present at Wakefield library earlier this week.Wakefield District City of Sanctuary presented Linda Fielding with the books that were bought for Ukrainian refugees in lieu of a leaving present at Wakefield library earlier this week.
Wakefield District City of Sanctuary presented Linda Fielding with the books that were bought for Ukrainian refugees in lieu of a leaving present at Wakefield library earlier this week.

"We purchased books in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish to help support some of the refugees in the district. Ranya Abdulateef, an artist and member of our organisation, designed and translated some inserts to go into each book.

"Linda was a founding member of the charity when it was just a handful of people and she worked tirelessly for everyone she came into contact with. She promoted the values of the organisation and people really responded to that.”