Just over a month ago the hall at St George’s was heaving with willing volunteers, generous members of the public and mountains of donations. It was another overwhelming response to our appeal for donations to send out to refugees in this country and oversees.
The following day we passed 120 boxes over to an amazing group who regularly transport donations on to refugees on the Greek mainland and the islands. These boxes were laden with much needed essential items such as nappies, jumpers and children’s clothes. In addition, two car loaded so toiletries were delivered to the Red Cross in Portsmouth.
We would like to thank everyone for their support. It was an extremely successful and well supported collection. We are thrilled and extremely grateful for the donations and the financial contributions that we received towards the transportation costs.
As you all know, over the following weeks the world turned upside down. The needs of the refugees remain the same but the aid reaching them has reduced and the number of volunteers on the ground has inevitably fallen too.
Due to these recent events, we have another 80 boxes still in storage in Farnham. We are trying to source a way to move them on to Greece or Northern France as the boxes contain more nappies, blankets and clothes. While we are working on this, we are also supporting the efforts by the charity Donate4Refugees.
Donate4Refugees is fundraising specifically to help refugees during this extra hard time. These funds will help to locally source food and other necessities that are currently even harder to access. If you would like to support this cause please visit https://justgiving.com/campaign/covid-19-refugees
Penny Hardcastle
The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale 