Charity lecture to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees
Published: 22 March 2022
Local historian Dr Todd Gray is to give a charity lecture at Exeter’s historic Guildhall to raise money for those fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The lecture will be held at the Guildhall on Wednesday 13 April at 2pm. Money raised from the event will go towards supporting Ukrainian refugees settling in Exeter.
Entitled 'Exeter & its own struggle for freedom' the lecture will explore similarities between the Exeter Blitz and the current invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army.
Eighty tickets are available at £10 each and Todd has also set up a Just Giving page for those who would like to make a donation regardless of attendance. Todd is hoping to raise around £2,000.
Todd said: "In some respects it is hard for Exeter residents to relate to what is happening in Ukraine, but 80 years ago we too cowered in buildings as bombs dropped on us sent by another dictator. The terrible nature of war, with its death, destruction and refugees came to Exeter in the early 1940s and we live on with it generations later.
"The war has raised the possibility that the freedoms which the Ukrainians have only recently become accustomed to may well be stripped from them. In Putin’s Russia the limitations to personal freedom are unfamiliar to us but we forget how generations had worked in Exeter to acquire them.
"This lecture will look at their struggles for the vote for women and working class men, for the right not to be executed simply because a man was gay, for the right to ask for a fair wage, for the ability to worship according to one’s conscience and for not being treated as an item of property. What we have is precious and the war in Ukraine should be a reminder of how easily they can be lost," he added.
To book tickets for the event go to the Corn Exchange website at https://www.exetercornexchange.co.uk/whats-on/exeter-its-own-struggle-for-freedom/
To donate money to the charity supporting Ukrainian refugees settling in Exeter, go to the Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/exeterukraine