Popularity of yellow and blue sunflowers helps raise money for UNICEF

Students Sia Patel and Korina Szyszko-Nicewicz with a selection of their knitted flowers

A group of students and staff at Notting Hill & Ealing High School have been knitting yellow and blue flowers in a school-wide fundraising initiative

Taking their inspiration from the sunflower, which is the Ukrainian national flower, they are selling them to raise funds for UNICEF to support the charity’s extensive efforts facing the current crisis in Ukraine. The demand for the flowers has been such that they are struggling to knit fast enough to keep up with demand.

“Seeing the daily helplessness of those affected by the crisis on our TV screens is heart-breaking. Watching children around our age having their lives uprooted by the conflict and witnessing their suffering, we really wanted to help, even if in a small way. After seeing the work UNICEF is doing to make the lives of children and their families even slightly less frightening, we thought that getting the school community involved would be beneficial to try and raise both money and awareness” said Sia Patel, one of the Year 12 students involved in this initiative.

“We've aimed to make the pattern as accessible as possible, and the project has grown to include crochet as well as knitted flowers and anyone within the school community able to help us. With homes, hospitals, schools, and other necessities being destroyed, we hope that the contributions we can make, however small, are able to support refugees from Ukraine and help ease the hardship of being displaced from their home”, added Korina Szyszko-Nicewicz, also in Year 12.

Chiswick-based Notting Hill and Ealing High School Head of Year 8 Anna Duns has been over-seeing the project and been very busy herself knitting the flowers. She also suggests that any other enthusiastic knitters could start creating their own sunflowers to sell using the pattern www.gathered.how/knitting-and-crochet/knitting/free-knitted-poppy-pattern.

A sample of some of the flowers knitted at the school

As well as knitted flowers which are going on sale just before half term, students across the school have been running several other initiatives as part of its efforts to support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

A dress-up day during which the students wore blue and yellow, along with a teacher’s quiz the same day, while a second hand book sale are also raising additional funds. The school is also organising an ongoing collection of blankets/sleeping bags, new underwear, flat pack T-shirts, power banks and roll mats.

Anna surrounded by some of her creations


This page is sponsored by Express Property Services who support community initiatives in Chiswick

April 2, 2022