An update on activities for Ukraine and beyond.

A collaboration between HaAD and HIS Church sees 26 pallets of rice delivered to Ukraine

As part of our ongoing commitment to Ukraine (UA), we have been working with a number of partners to deliver food and other essential items directly into UA via our network in Slovakia and Romania. 

For this load we want to send a big thank you to HIS Church, for providing 26 pallets of Uncle Bens pre cooked rice, for delivery to Ukraine via a backload to Slovakia. 

The rice will be moved in to UA by our Slovakian partner to our warehouse over the border, with onward transportation to a number of communities.

Stop Rwanda 

Words fail me!

It is 2022, yet last Sunday I was outside Brook House at Gatwick Airport protesting against people being flown off to Africa, under the pretence of being illegal, but without trial.

We stopped shipping convicts to Australia in 1868, how far have we come in 154 years?

As you will all know, we along with many other organisations did what we could to voice our opinions.  Some great work was done by Care4 Calais and Freedom from Torture among others, and literally at the 11th hour the ECHR stepped in to prevent this terrible situation.

85% of people who cross the channel, when they apply for asylum are granted it, so are these people illegal migrants, most of them clearly are not, and I am sure a very good case could probably be made for 14% of the other 15%. 

Given our labour shortages in this country right now, maybe we should be welcoming these hard working, intelligent people with open arms and allowing them to enrich our communities, just a thought!

Sign every petition and go on every protest you can.  It clearly does make a difference.  In July the courts will rule on the legality of this position, until then please do all you can to stop these inhumane flights taking off.  

Refugee Week is back again.  It runs next week from 20th to the 26th June.

There are so many events taking place all over the country and there is a big push to involve children and young people this year.  I will be doing a talk with a school on Tuesday, hopefully the next generation of humanitarians.

Little Amal is back on the road again as part of the events, so check that out.

Here is a listing of events.  If you can get to see something and support what is going on, I urge you to do so.

Brigid Woodcock's 5K a day for May!

A big thank you to Brigid who raised £1,394 including Gift Aid so far for her 5K a day walk throughout May. 

Completing a challenge that requires you to commit to something every day for 31 days is not easy and I take my hat off to her for this commitment.

Brigid wrote on her fundraising page:

“Every day we see the atrocities on the television. News of the suffering and plight of the people of Ukraine. The lost lives of the innocent residents. Everything they own destroyed. Loved ones annihilated and for what?

One clip from the BBC has had a profound effect on me. Ms Iryna Kostenko was describing her plight of losing her beloved young son and having to bury him wrapped in a carpet in her garden. Her grief, anguish and torment has been haunting me over the last few days. I’m so blessed with my life, my loved ones, family and friends. I have all I need and I am truly grateful. I felt I had to do something no matter how small, to at least try to help give something back to support these people who have had this war thrust upon them”

She therefore decided to walk 5k a day, 155km in total, separate to her normal daily steps which she mapped on her Garmin/Strava account.

She went on to say:

“Imagine if rather than just witnessing the destruction of our brothers and sisters we all did just a little something, anything to raise funds to support other human beings that are in desperate need following the devastating loss of their homes.”

We hope that acts like this do inspire you all to do something, a little something that will help charities like Hope and Aid Direct to continue to do the work that we all do.

Thank you once again Brigid. 

And finally..... 

A much needed delivery to our friends in Calais.

Although we are stretched at the moment we remain acutely aware of the ongoing needs elsewhere around Europe.

With this in mind, at the beginning of July we will be taking Frantic, one of our 7.5 tonne trucks to Calais for Distribute Aid.

The truck will contain 6 pallets of toiletries with the rest of the truck being filled to the gunnels (weight permitting of course), with tents and sleeping bags that have been salvaged from the Isle of Wight festival.  These are being taken on behalf of the salvage experts, Herts for Refugees, who collected Frantic from us yesterday in readiness for this salvage. 

As always, thanks to all of you for your support.  We could not do any of this work without you and your valuable donations.