A holiday camp for Ukrainian refugees begins this week, as the country continues to be ravaged by the war with Russia.
The camp, at Lendrick Muir in Perthshire, is run by Scripture Union in Scotland, which has a longstanding relationship with the same movement in Ukraine, which is called Open Bible.
SU is an interdenominational evangelical Christian organisation founded in 1867, and has run the camp since 2024.
Jackie Ringan, director of development and holidays told The Herald: "SU began some work in Ukraine a few years after communism ended, quite often folk from Scotland going out to visit and taking young people there, up until the pandemic.
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"The pandemic came and that all stopped then even before we were out of that there was the full-scale war.
"We've kept in very, very close contact with our partners in Ukraine throughout that time, indeed one of the staff families came to Scotland and they have been living and working at our residential centre in Lendrick Muir since April 2022.
"The idea of the holiday was really just a bit random, we were still emerging from the pandemic and had a spare week at one of our centres in Lendrick Muir and thought, 'I wonder if we could do something for Ukrainian refugees?'.
"Folks at that point had really very poor English and folks on team had very poor Ukrainian, if any, and yet they were able to connect.
"A lot of it was just listening to people's stories, allowing children to be children and to play and take part in activities.
"We've got 30 guests coming to join us on Sunday (August 2) for a week.
"There'll be water sports on offer, trail biking, king swings and high ropes, climbing walls. And then there'll be things like orienteering and putting and disc golf and just normal team games and things and opportunity for parents to do craft activities and talk as they do that.
"We do have the Ukrainian family who are working with us, so they will do stuff in Ukrainian with our guests and we'll be able to do a lot of translation as well if necessary but understandably folks' English is improving all the time, a lot of the young children their English is just like a Scottish person now."
This year's event will see around 30 people attend, and all of them are mothers, grandmothers and children.
While some will have husbands and fathers working in Scotland, many will have lost them in the war or be separated while they fight.
Ms Ringan says: "I think it's fair to say that I don't think there'll be a person with us next week who hasn't experienced some form of trauma as a result of the war and they're carrying that with them,
"Even the family who we have living with us just now in Scotland, they would have experienced quite a lot of trauma in the early days of the war and that's all part of their makeup now.
"We know of one family next week there's a husband who has been lost at the frontlines and they may or may not choose to talk about that, but there will be the opportunity if the time is right for them to have a listening ear and someone who can just allow them to talk."
Though SU is a Christian organisation and holds religious sessions in the mornings and evenings, they are optional.
Nonetheless in each year the whole group has chosen to attend.
Around 72% of Ukrainians are Eastern Orthodox, with 9% Catholic and 2% Protestant.
Ms Ringan says: "Scripture Union is completely inter-denominational and the same would be true in Ukraine, they'd have young people from all different denominations that their activities and their staff team would worship in a variety of denominations.
"Of the group we've got this coming week, some go to a church but for some it's to access a warm space, for example there's a church in Dunfermline who have a monthly meeting with food and so on for the Ukrainian refugee community and have done a lot of work with refugees who have been based in that part of Fife.
"I'd imagine quite a lot of our guests would be Orthodox, because that's the largest grouping of churches in Ukraine."
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