It is often said that young people have no concept what the older generation went through to secure the freedom of Europe during the Second World War. The Scottish charity Erskine is hoping in part to address this by using the internet to preserve the memories of war veterans in its care and share their experiences with local children.

Erskine, which cares for ex-Service men and women in various areas of Scotland, put its 2004 AOL Innovation in the Community Award towards extending the depth of content on its website ahead of the 60th anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day, including the creation of a new schools site.

With more than half of the residents at Erskine's homes having served in World War II, the charity decided to enhance the site with audio footage of the veterans recounting their experiences of war.

Martin Gibson, Chief Executive of Erskine, explains: "We knew that many of our residents have fascinating stories to tell so we interviewed them to capture their memories. Having the emotion of the voice has much more impact than static words on a Web page."

As the Government is keen to promote interaction between younger and older generations, we thought that having audio clips of interviews with ex-Service men and women would be a great way of forging that link and educating children about the contribution the World War II veterans made to life as we know it today."

The website has made a huge difference to Erskine residents, supporters, volunteers and the local community. As well as being able to share in the veterans' experiences, anyone looking for a care facility for a member of their family can now read about Erskine's offering online. The charity has seen both an increase in the number of visitors to the website and in the number of online donations from supporters, including some international gifts.

Martin Gibson says: "Winning this award pushed us to go one step further and I can only imagine what we might be able to do with the website in the future."

www.erskine.org.uk