In mid-March 2022, we learned that the Ministry of Defence had chartered a plane to bring between twenty and thirty Ukrainian children suffering from cancer, along with their families, to Spain. They were arriving as refugees to continue their medical treatment within the Spanish public health system.

We immediately thought about how Let’s Bot! could help these children who found themselves in such a difficult situation. We started to talk to CEAR (The Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid) which was managing the intake of the refugees, and to Banco Santander, whose residential facilities in Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, were housing the children and their families. Both institutions were enthusiastic about our proposal to organize a robotics workshop as an activity that would be both entertaining and educational for participants in such special circumstances.

So, we got to work! The workshop took place during a weekend in May 2022. The program was taught in English and Ukrainian with the invaluable help of our teachers and the CEAR coordinators who acted as translators. We originally designed the program for 12 participants but over the course of the two days, children of different ages kept joining in, all eager to participate, learn and have fun. In the end, more than twenty participants shared with us a weekend full of robotics, fun and a lot of love. It was an incredible experience and an absolute life lesson from these boys and girls.

It is becoming clearer and clearer that through Let’s Bot! Sustainable Robotics: Opportunity for Everyone! we can do so much for those who need it most and in so many different environments. We keep on growing!