Thank you for visiting our website to find out more about the TeddyBusz project.
Our landmark achievement was the distribution of a teddy bear to almost every child escaping from Ukraine to Hungary by train for almost 3 months at the start of the war.
Despite being a very small volunteer organisation from a seaside town in England, thanks to the kindness of local people, children and international friends we put our mission together in just 10 days. We drove a 53-seat Volvo coach loaded with 5000 teddy bears – and aid – to the small Hungarian border town of Záhony and spent almost 3 months at the border handing out these “Bears of Hope” directly to children. 2000 additional bears arrived from Chicago – making 7000 total loving faces and comforters given out. We also supported the local community as it faced the unprecedented challenges of being the border of a war zone.
We returned home to the UK for the Summer while our Brexit/EU travel quota reset, re-stocked and planned our next trip. We travelled again more than 3000 miles on our second “TeddyBusz Reloaded” trip in October to the border at Záhony and Transcarpathian Ukraine, distributing kids school items, toiletries, food, blankets and toiletry packs to groups operating in Ukraine helping refugees and displaced people. We also took a message of support and solidarity from the Mayor of our home town – Weston-super-Mare – directly to the Mayor of Záhony.
At Christmas, we were invited to Záhony to join other volunteers and dignitaries at the first Peace Film Festival, and were also welcomed to the town’s family festive celebrations. We were able to deliver important gifts from England to the local community and especially rail workers. The unsung heroes of the frontier railway station are the ticket office staff, the train and station cleaners, the Hungarian drivers taking their trains into Ukraine every day for over 9 months, and all the people struggling with the effects of rising prices and food rationing.
In 2023, we have continued to support the groups we already know and trust in Ukraine and Eastern Hungary, as well as some new groups – such as a group in Warsaw, Poland, taking care of disabled and orphaned children dealing with trauma who we visited in February with a delivery of puppets, knitted toys and English chocolate. The puppets were really important and had been specially requested- King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Grandma, boy, girl, cat – to be used over and over again to help storytelling and trauma recovery.
Now we are planning our Easter “solidarity reunion” 5th delivery trip across Europe. We’ll be leaving on 30th March. Primarily our focus will be knitted Easter toys – bunnies, lambs, chicks and eggs, plus chocolate and sweets. Also, as we get closer to departure time, we will know the shopping requirements of the local groups and will do our best to help with essential supplies. Please check our Facebook page for the latest information of items needed and how you can help.
Please explore the site, view the photo galleries, web links to news stories, and if you can help or would like to donate, you can use our GoFundMe link
Our Facebook page also has regular updates
TeddyBusz - Bears of Hope 