Vienna, May 4th, 2022 (KAP) Pupils from Catholic schools have collected a total of 170,000 euros for aid projects in Ukraine. According to this, the children and young people from 24 schools throughout Austria collected donations in the “Run4Ukraine – LAUFerstanding” project over a total of 21,500 kilometers, as the Austrian religious orders announced in a broadcast on Wednesday. “It’s simply overwhelming to see what came out of the idea of two students from the Ursuline Gymnasium in Graz. It shows impressively what can be achieved together,” emphasized Clemens Paulovics, Head of Education and Religious Schools of the Austrian Religious Conference and coordinator of the project “Run4Ukraine”.
The idea came from two students of the Ursulinen Graz. They wanted to support children in Ukraine with a charity run. The money collected in this way will be donated directly by the schools to an organization of their choice for the benefit of Ukraine aid. The war in Ukraine and the fate of the people are topics in the schools and are carefully discussed and worked through by the educational staff with the students. “In view of the often personal helplessness, it was also important to us to give the students an opportunity to do something concrete, to help,” explained Paulovics.
Starting with the Styrian Catholic private schools, the Austrian religious orders conference with the interdiocesan office for teaching and education took up the idea at the end of March and invited all Catholic schools throughout Austria to take part in the “Run4Ukraine” project. The symbolic goal was to run the Vienna-Mariupol route together, 2,022 kilometers, and to collect donations for aid projects in the Ukraine. This goal was quickly achieved. In total, they walked halfway around the world and further, or more than 10 times from Vienna to Mariupol. (Info: https://www.ordensgemeinschaften.at/run-4-ukraine)