Geographically and culturally there is little in common between a town in former communist central Ukraine and leafy true-blue Southborough.
Yet a chance meeting a decade ago sparked a remarkable friendship between two very different towns which continues to blossom to this day.
The result has been the Southborough and Kaniv Asssocation (SAKA). Founded in 2005, it has provided a platform for a mutually beneficial link-up between the diverse areas.
For Mike Handcock, the association’s chair, it has been an eye-opening experience since he first met with representatives from Kaniv at the European Project for Youth, an EU initiative, in Southborough’s twin town of Lambersart, France in 2001.
He got chatting to the group leader from the Ukraine, Lyudmila Synenko, and was interested to find out about where she lived and surprised to hear that they had not flown to France but had driven all the way.
The next year they met again at a similar event at Swattenden near Cranbook, which he attended as then Mayor of Southborough. Over tea at Tunbridge Wells Town Hall, Mr Handcock spoke again with Ms Synenko and this time asked if there was anything they could do to help.
She said the children in Kaniv were very keen to learn English but did not have many English books. Mr Handcock launched a collection and the community donated 13 boxes of books.
The mayor of Kaniv then invited Mr Handcock to attend the town’s 925th anniversary, he said: "I was not sure what to expect. Not all that long ago it was a communist country.
"We were greeted at the airport in Kiev by a group from Kaniv and we were taken there in a minibus carrying all the bouquets of flowers we’d been given. There were a lot of hugs and kisses and singing all the way there.
"It has really gone from there. When I got there I never expected to be addressing 7,000 people in the square. Fortunately, being a former headteacher it did not faze me too much.
"I’ve been to the Ukraine eight times since then. I love it there, it is such an interesting town and I like the country. The people are so generous and hospitable."
Other people from Southborough visited Kaniv and residents from the Ukrainian town, which is in the province of Cherkasy, came to Kent.
SAKA was set up to encourage more visits between the two towns and to support projects there. It now has about 50 members who meet regularly.
Member Brian Dobson has recently completed work on a new website for the association, which is packed full of information about both towns and their history. He hopes it will encourage more residents of Southborough to join.
"It has taken a long time to gather information, in particular about Kaniv, for which it has involved working in Ukrainian and Russian," Mr Dobson said.
"SAKA can now boast the best English language website for Kaniv and one of the best for Southborough."
SAKA has been helping elderly people in Kaniv through the cold winter months through fundraising.
Mr Handcock told how he had met with older members of the community, including some who survived the Holodomor (Death by Starvation) the famine imposed by Josef Stalin.
He said one 92-year-old woman was still working in her garden when they arrived in the evening. Inside her small cottage, she disappeared to the kitchen and returned with a saucepan full of walnuts and a carrier bag.
She poured the walnuts, which were from her garden, into the bag and the translator explained they were a gift and that she said they must return the next evening for some potatoes.
"Wherever you go in the world where people have the least they are prepared and happy to give it away," he said. "People with a lot, however, are a bit mean about things."
Times are especially tough in Ukraine at the moment. The country’s economy shrank 15 per cent in 2009 and to recover the familiar formula of prices rises, tax increases and public spending cuts have been brought in.
One in three people live in poverty in the Ukraine and it is they are feeling the brunt of the cutbacks.
"They had the presidential election last year so the situation has changed a good deal from what it was before," Mr Handcock said. "But that does not stop them behaving just as they have.
"Life is very difficult for them out there. They’ve just merged School Number Six with School Number Two in Kaniv and some of the staff will lose their jobs.
"They are cutting down public services just as we are making cuts to try and get rid of the deficit. They are having the same, but it is much worse than here."
Kaniv itself is a fascinating and culturally rich town on the banks of the River Dnieper as SAKA’s new website shows.
It is the burial site of Taras Schevchenko – a 19th century poet, artist, humanist and national hero. His work is seen as the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and its language.
Another national hero, Oleksa Hirnyk, committed self-immolation in 1978 on Chernecha Hill not far from Shevchenko’s tomb in protest against the suppression of the Ukrainian language by the Soviet authorities.
Other sites of interest include the Park of Glory, which is a memorial to the military personnel who lost their lives in the battles around Kaniv during the Second World War.
For more information visit SAKA’s website at www.southboroughandkanivassociation.com.
