On Wednesday morning, Kate Middleton made a trip to Vsi Razom, a community center in Bracknell, where she helped pack aid boxes to be sent to refugees in Ukraine. During the visit, she found time to handwrite a special message to those displaced by the ongoing war. On a box packed with food and clothing, she wrote, “We are all thinking of you.”
The visit coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Berkshire-based center, whose name means “all together” in Ukrainian, according to Hello!. Founded by local residents Natalia Vil and Ashleigh Toomey, the center collects donations for refugees and provides services for those who have emigrated to the UK since the conflict began in February 2022.
Wearing a Cefinn sweater vest and gray trousers from Sézane, Kate visited with a handful of young children who joined their parents at the community center. She joined in on an arts and crafts session at the center by adding a handprint to a community painting and making a pin featuring the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
In a conversation with eight-year-old Liza Sverdlova, Kate said that her daughter Princess Charlotte was singing Wednesday morning. “I heard my daughter singing this morning—a song called ‘Shine, Jesus, Shine,’ and that made me very happy,” she said.
Kate also spoke with Liza’s mother, Tetiana Sverdlova, a psychologist who provides weekly therapy sessions at Vsi Razom for recently arrived refugees. She said that she and her daughter have been living with a local family since April, but her two sons, aged 16 and 23, are still in Ukraine. “It’s been wonderful,” Sverdlova said, per Hello! “Bracknell is a very nice city. People are very welcoming. We feel a lot of support.”
The princess and her husband, Prince William, have made supporting Ukraine a regular part of their engagement schedule since the beginning of the conflict last year. In March 2023, William made a surprise visit to Poland, where he met with Ukrainian refugees who had fled across the border. “He wanted to have the opportunity to highlight that the humanitarian crisis was really important to him and show, publicly, his thanks to the Polish people for their humanity and hospitality,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson said of the visit.
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