Remarkable Milton Keynes girl who's just 6 years old sets up charity to help children in Ukraine

Little Madison Baker first learned about the war in Ukraine while watching the early evening news with her father at their home in MK.

She was so upset by the scenes on her TV that she asked what she could do to help.

Together, Madison and her dad Mark thought of ideas and came up with Hands Across the Skies, a project to send much-needed support aid to the Ukraine.

However, Madison’s own wish was for young people like her to have the opportunity to send a message to their peers in Ukraine, just to let them know that children across the world care for them and want to help.

Over the past few months Madison has reached out from Milton Keynes to youngsters in Ukraine, as well refugees living in Bulgaria, the USA and all over the UK.

The network has grown beyond her wildest imagination and Madison has even formed a team of ‘Project Ambassadors’. Her fellow ambassadors are Alesya, a five-year-old Ukrainian refugee who is now safe in Bulgaria, and Ana who is 11 and also lives in Bulgaria.

Madison, Alesya and Ana have sent messages of support to Ukrainian children and spoken with Country Ambassadors and celebrities to build awareness and support for their work.

Madison is a pupil at Thornton College, a private girls’ school just outside MK, and the school this month hosted an event to officially launch the charity.

Delegates from Bulgaria flew in to be present, joining MK Mayoress Amanda Marlow and experts from the UK aviation industry. Representatives from the Bulgarian Embassy and Bulgarian charities also attended by Zoom.

They described the challenges faced by families and children in Ukraine and how one refugee centre has already helped 15,000 child refugees. There are now more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria and the delegates heard that more than 5.2 million Ukrainian children have been displaced already.

Hands Across the Skies is a channel for young people to share their messages of support via social media for children across the world affected by the war in Ukraine.

It also aims to practically help children by providing much needed supplies via an aid flight from Luton to Sofia. The first of these flights is scheduled for today (Thursday).

Madison’s dad said: “It staggers me that this generation at such a young and tender age, are so informed and, so compassionate, to less fortunate citizens of the world facing such a dreadful plight.”

He added: “It is a credit to Mrs Holmes, Mrs Thomas and all at Thornton College, that our future leaders shall progress through formative years and, into adult life, with such a determined ideal to avoid conflict and look to put others first”.

Mrs Holmes, Thornton’s headteacher said, “It is wonderful to hear about Madison and her enthusiasm to help other children her age affected by the war in the Ukraine. We are proud of her efforts to put her ideas into action and wish her and her father the best of luck with their impressive aims and scale of their project”.

#handsacrosstheskies can be found on Facebook here, Twitter here or YouTube here.