| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We hope you had a good relax over the bank holiday, because summer is on its way, a time to get out there and think about fundraising events and challenges. We would love to hear from anyone who is considering doing a sponsored event for Hope and Aid Direct, we would love to help supporting you though our social media.
Anyone who follows our social media will know about our new truck, but for those that don’t, firstly jump onboard via the links at the bottom of this newsletter, secondly you have missed a very busy few weeks for the operational and transport volunteers, with the receipt of the new truck pictured above which is an amazing donation from Maritime Transport.
Maritime Transport first worked with HaAD in 2022, when transport was required to deliver over 50,000 duvet and pillow sets, which had been donated by Whitbread/Premier Inn.
Last year, at a launch event of a film made by Clockwise to highlight the great work of Whitbread, we met Alex Williams, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Maritime Transport who voiced his desire to help more. Those conversations led to this amazing donation of a 2019-plate Scania truck (Euro 6 Scania R 450) and trailer. This is a much-needed upgrade to our current 40-tonne truck, Solent Challenger. It will join our small fleet of two 7.5-tonne vehicles that the charity already utilises.
| | | | We are currently planning the next few months of activity, so hopefully in the next newsletter we can give you more details about how this truck will be used as part of these plans.
You can read Maritime Transport's press release here.
Charles Storer MBE, Head of Operations, Hope and Aid Direct: ‘Maritime is really showing other corporates how to be a ‘force for good’ in a real, positive way and this new addition to our fleet will see us many years into the future, ensuring we can continue to provide humanitarian aid under challenging conditions to people in unimaginable circumstances. A huge thank you to Maritime and Whitbread for their exceptional support.
| | | | | | Last year, as you will remember, there was a huge earthquake in Türkiye and we reacted to this by setting up a fundraiser. Buoyed by a large donation of over £4000 by LRQA, the company that Benjamin Western one of the HaAD trustees works for, we raised £10000 to help with this disaster.
Unfortunately, up until now, we have not been able to help in this region due to political and logistical challenges.
I am happy though now to be able to report that we have identified a partner, KODA, that will be using this money on an upcoming project this summer in an area affected by the earthquake.
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KODA is an association that has been working since 2016 to ensure that children in villages receive a better education. They carry out educational activities for teachers, teacher candidates and parents, conduct research and advocacy studies on educational issues in rural areas, and develop educational content appropriate to local conditions.
Following the earthquakes that struck Kahramanmaraş on February 6th, they began their post-disaster work to restructure education in rural areas and to provide families and children with psychosocial and educational support. Their earthquake related work consists of conducting needs assessments, reshaping and building programs, creating new content, and conducting research.
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In August they will be hold training camps for the new period of the program. They are planning to use the donation to support the preparation of the training content of this program, the coordination of the program, the accommodation, food, etc. required for the camp. At the camp 80 classroom teachers who have been working in disaster areas in the first three years of their profession will receive personal, professional and disaster-specific training for 4 days. They are planning a special program for the needs of teachers who are new to the profession. There will be contents such as Art, Education in Nature, Disaster Pedagogy, Introduction to SEL (Social - Emotional Learning).
Find out more details about the program.
It has taken some time to find the right partner in the area, but ensuring that we have the right partners on the ground has always been key to the work we do. This is important to make sure that the money you donate finds its way to help the people that we know you want to help when you make these donations.
Watch this space, we will provide updates as and when they are available.
| | | | | | A couple of great donations! | |
Truck 54 is loaded and on its way to Ukraine.
It’s a great achievement that can only keep happening if the right aid keeps being supplied to us. We rely on aid from a wide variety of sources, the many knitters that keep producing blankets, the drop off points that continue to do such great work and also corporates.
Two recent examples of corporate support have come from Blackstone Stripout and Every Child Online.
Blackstone Stripout deal with commercial spaces, offices, hotels etc.. when they are sold or being renovated and need to be stripped back to the bare bones before the new owners take charge of the property. Blackstone were recently working on a project to clear out a hotel in St. Pancras and they have a lot of good quality mattresses, chairs and fridges that they want us to move to Ukraine rather than them having to recycle them or worse still, sending them to landfill.
We would like to think that this initial supply of goods will be the start of a much longer term relationship, thank you Blackstone for getting in touch with us, your aid will have a huge impact on people’s lives once they arrive in Ukraine. These items will be heading out to Ukraine in the near future.
| | | | Every Child Online have donated 100 desk top computers and screens which are part of load 54.
Each PC has been properly refurbished with all data erased, and where necessary new drives inserted. The PC’s are all Windows 10 and all have intel chips and all of course come with keyboards, mice and the necessary cables.
The PC’s will go out to Alla at Ukraine on Palms, who when we spoke to her about them said, “Thank you, yes, it’s very good proposition, we will place them in modular homes for Internally Displaced Persons where there spaces for children to study online school. We will also try to place some in school underground shelters in dangerous regions."
Thank you Every Child Online for this great initiative. | | | | | | | | Lastly we asked Jo, our warehouse manager to write a few words. This is a slightly cut down version of her reply.
If you want help out, and have some spare time on your hands, as Jo did, please get in touch. We can find a role for you. Please do get in touch and we can chat through what sort of thing you would like to do and find a role for you.
I had been looking to volunteer and heard about Hope and Aid Direct from my sister Carole, who had been working with Charles since going to Lesvos in 2019. I had retired from nursing, and following the easing of the pandemic rules, I was looking for something to use some of my skills and use my time productively. The initial idea was that I would drop in when Carole (traveling from Norfolk) would be delivering boxes of aid and help her unload and repack. But as we know things never work out as you think. I met a lovely group of people, including Mary, who I now know there is no escaping from. She showed me the ropes; how to pack the banana boxes, how to load the pallets, how to label, order, make coffee and definitely laugh, lots of laughing. Now this may all sound simple, until you are sorting through new and used goods (some that makes you wonder about the mindset of the donator, ball gowns to Ukraine?). I ensure loads are labelled correctly for customs, that items are not mixed, expiry checked, weighed, wrapped, ordered in the warehouse so they are accessible. I started to help Mary run the warehouse, which I was happy to do. We had a great team of mainly five ladies who helped us when needed. We would contact a wider group when we had larger loads being delivered. When we moved premises, it was at this next base that I started to take over the warehouse planning and Mary would organise sorting of the rota. I started to work more closely with Roddy, who organises other storage, deliveries, stock lists and much more including bridging the gap between the work of the Drop Off Point managers and myself. I have tried to remain organised using a spreadsheet that Roddy has developed. Between us we can ensure what is coming in and out and whether there is a time limit regarding expiry dates. I keep the warehouse structured, with safe areas for packing, wrapping, weighing, and then safe storage. Volunteers need to keep to packing guidelines. It is important that from the beginning each item is checked fit to send, boxed with other appropriate items, boxes are not too heavy and clearly labelled on all four sides. We have also learnt some Ukrainian along the way! There are many guidelines with dispatch. The aid needs to be secured onto the trucks, adhere through customs and be safe to unload and store at their destination. When we have a delivery of aid going out Charles or myself will put out a call for volunteer help. For the deliveries this will mean unloaders, physically able people to use pump trucks to unload and then sorters to repack or check. We devise a plan for the truck and load based on need and weight. The pallets are labelled and pulled out ready to move to the loading bay and with the aid of a forklift truck or manually the pallets are loaded. All the work is dependent on the availability of our volunteers. Without them we cannot load the trucks. As the warehouse manager I realise the main things are organisation and safety of the volunteers. The safety aspect of the warehouse is maintained by keeping ahead of potential problems. Looking at the physical structure of the premises, updating procedures, replenishing first aid kits. Volunteers also have a responsibility to be aware of their own safety, to move slowly, be aware of their surroundings and wear appropriate clothing. When I say that I wanted to use my skills, I am glad I had four children and nursed children. Answering more than one question at a time seems my forte! It comes in remarkably handy in a warehouse. The role has got larger. Mary, you never told me this! It is mental, physical, and is also fun. I do have the pleasure of working with some very pleasant people and I know what I do is needed and appreciated. We will communicate with you again soon, hopefully next time with some dates of upcoming truck departures possibly to Poland and / or Moldova. We will keep all the drivers in mind who have contacted us recently. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | You are receiving this email as you signed up for our newsletters. Want to no longer receive these emails?
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