A very special charity auction for Ukraine
On 21 September, the Estonian embassy in London organised another charity dinner and auction for Ukraine (you can read more about the first dinner here, in Estonian). This time, the initiative came from British businessman Daniel Harvey, who attended the first dinner as a guest and now wished to organise an event for 150 people instead of 40. He also actively participated in the organisation of the event.
The three-course dinner was held in the Postal Museum in Bloomsbury, courtesy of top chef Yotam Ottolenghi. He came up with the menu and donated the food, which was prepared by his experienced team. Once again, the drinks and food as well as all the prizes of the auction and raffle were given to us by kind people and companies. Eventually the number of people eager to assist exceeded our hosting capacity. Speakers of the event included British Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat and Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, and Kvitka, a 10-year-old war refugee from Ukraine, sang to the audience.
The successful auction was carried out by BBC presenter Jonathan Pratt and we raised a total of £90 620 (more than €100 000). On the recommendation of the Ukrainian embassy, the entire sum will be used to buy armoured ambulances. Ambulances have sadly been targeted in Russia’s war and by protecting the lives of medics armoured ambulances can protect those in need.
