In memory of Graham Crame

We would like to pay loving tribute in this newsletter, to one of our longest serving and most ardent volunteers and supporters, and one of our very best friends, Graham Crame, who tragically died a week ago of a heart attack. Our hearts go out to Graham’s wife Lizzie, their daughter Naomi, Graham’s son Nathan, and all their family.

Graham’s first ‘convoy’ with us was to Kosovo in March 2005 as a flying team member, but very soon afterwards he linked up with the late John ‘Coxy’ Cox to form the formidable duo and double act ‘The Grumpies’. Loved by everyone, the ‘Grumpies’ and especially Graham played to the gallery but won the admiration of friends and acquaintances everywhere. If there was a particular need to help anyone that fell slightly outside the charity’s activities, Graham always seemed to find a way to recruit support and get on with it. His wit and naughty sense of fun with that twinkle in his eye was always to the fore, and at every opportunity he promoted and supported the work of Hope and Aid Direct.

In the last year or so, Graham has been a passionate advocate and driving force as a Director of The Harwich Kindertransport Memorial and Learning Trust Ltd, established in his home town, Harwich. The story of the WWII Kindertransport is well known about, but many have never realised that the 10,000 children who were brought to Great Britain arrived first by boat to Harwich.

A renowned sculptor has spent endless months meticulously crafting what is and will become a fantastic bronze statue recreating the disembarkation of those children onto the dockside in Harwich, and a ‘must see’ reminder of the Kindertransport imperative. I am certain that Graham is looking down on our Politicians right now with a scowl as the general public come forward in their droves offering to take Ukrainian (and other) refugees into their homes. Rest in peace Graham, and rest easy mate…. we’re all on it for you!

Ukraine Update

Our first two trucks of aid have now been delivered.  

The first was 187 emergency hospital beds from Glasgow to the Poland/Ukraine border on Wednesday, these will be shipped into the Ukraine within a few days.  There are in excess of 200 more beds that we are working hard to get out also to Ukraine with the assistance of the Ukraine Medical Association.

The second truck headed to Romania and delivered around 500 baby boxes (a cot sized box with a mattress and filled with baby cream, food and nappies etc) as well as five pallets of nappies, pallets of hygiene items and hundreds of sleeping bags (around 25 tonnes in total).

These were delivered to our in-country NGO partner Integra and will be trans shipped to Lviv in the Ukraine in the next few days.  This was our first delivery to Integra, they proved to be an exceptionally well organised outfit with the same moral compass as Hope and Aid Direct.  We believe we now have a long term relationship in Romaina that will allow us access to two Ukrainian borders, the one to the South of Chernivtsi and also to the East of the country where people are coming in from Odessa. 

We have also been working in the background to match aid that has been offered to the need out in country but where we don't have the logistical capacity to transport this ourselves. 

As with the hospital beds we have been the middle-man liaising with the Ukraine Medical Association and BP Post to move in excess of £100,000 worth of medical dressings out to Ukraine.  

We have only been able to do this because of the continued support that you have been able to give in terms of financial and physical donations. Thank you! The website is showing around £40,000 of donations but there a lot of offline donations that have come in that when I get 5 mins to update on the website, I believe will take this to above £60,000.  We also have about £20,000 of promised but as yet not received donations. I hope by the end of March the total will be close to £100,000, it's an amazing effort, keep it going in any and every way you can.

For physical rather than financial donations, you can find our current needs list on the website. Please be aware that this list is changing regularly due to the ever-changing demand from our partners. That said, we are aiming to get most of our aid into Ukraine and we are being asked for food, food, food. With this in mind please focus if you can, on the items in bold, particularly dried fruit, nuts, energy bars, camping rations and emergency food rations.

Donations need to be correctly boxed and sent or delivered to our drop off points.

Our plans for the next trip have changed (and remain subject to further change).  The plan was to go to Moldova with TEECH, however we are now splitting the load, TEECH are still going to Moldova where as we are going to Slovakia for onward transportation into Ukraine.  Our load may be split further so that some goes to Romania.  We will know closer to the time when the final loads are put together and married up with needs lists in all locations.  As always our aim is to make sure the right aid gets to the right people at the right time.  We are planning leaving in roughly 2 weeks time. 

We joined the Lift the Ban coalition to campaign

for the right to work for people seeking asylum

As you may know, the Government’s new sponsorship scheme will grant working rights to people fleeing Ukraine to seek safety, the same as those who are eligible to stay in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme. Those who arrived here under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) also have the same right. 

However, those who are not able to apply for these schemes but seeking asylum in the UK are effectively banned from working. They can only apply to the Home Office for permission to work if they have been waiting for a decision for over 12 months and only for jobs that are on the Government’s restricted Shortage Occupation List (this is an incredibly restrictive list that includes jobs such as ballet dancer and nuclear medicine practitioner).

This month Hope and Aid Direct joined the Lift the Ban campaign which includes over 260 organisations – businesses, trade unions, think tanks, faith groups and charities – and aims to win the right to work for people seeking asylum after six months of having lodged an asylum claim.

The House of Lords has voted for an amendment in the Nationality and Borders Bill to give people seeking asylum the right to work. Now we need to encourage MPs to vote for this amendment.  We need them to hear this campaign loudly and clearly.

You may get updates from us on this issue in the coming weeks. There are more details on the Hope and Aid Direct Website

Recently we asked for volunteers and you responded.  We have had lots of people come forward to help, some if not all of you will have been contacted, if you haven't please bear with us. 

To those new volunteers who have joined us, thank you, we will keep you busy! 

The request for this newsletter is more logistical.  We need owner drivers.  If any of you have contacts with any logistics or transportation companies, please can you call them or pass their details onto us.  We have lots of aid, much of which is either at, or on its way to, our temporary warehouse in Basildon.  What we don't have right now are the trucks to move it all.  We need artics with drivers, put the calls out please. 

Other roles we are currently looking to fill are warehouse personnel of all levels and a financial resouce, ideally a retired accountant.  

OK that's a clear lie, it's not business as usual. 

That said we have not forgotten about the other major humanitarian issues around the world, but we can't afford to spread ourselves too thinly right now. 

We understand and appreciate that there are still people in Greece, Calais, Afghanistan and other places that need our help.  We are talking internally about how to deal with this, but there are updates and things going on that need to be reported back. 

Firstly, we have had a big step forward with regards to the paperwork required to deliver aid to Greece, this is very good news and provides us with the next step to being able to help back there.  In addition, there are now NGOs that are picking up unwanted aid in Poland and transporting it back to Calais would you believe!  

There are still many charities working in these locations and we are in touch with them, so although we are not reporting much activity that doesnt mean these people are being left to fend for themselves, they are not.