People continue to give us generous amounts of things ranging from money, food and toiletries to kitchenware, clothing and computers. We continue to value these welcome gifts and to share them in different ways.
Money is used to further our aims of showing and promoting support for people forced to seek sanctuary by offering time out and welcome in many different ways. EG this week we have helped 6 people seeking sanctuary in Newport to attend Wembley to see Newport County in a play off by purchasing tickets for them, we have helped with bus fares for someone needing to visit a city to obtain evidence to further their claim for asylum, we paid for a bus to bring people out to the Llanthony valley to attend our welcome day out and we have given bus fares so people can catch the bus to be volunteer stewards at Hay festival next week.
a typical car load
the store after a load has gone to SHARP
Other donations are usually left at our drop off points at St Mary’s Church in Hay on Wye or at the Liberal Democrats Offices in Brecon, picked up by Brenda, Lawrence, Carola, Sue or Ailsa, sorted and packed by Sue, Erica and Carola and stored at the store room in Ty Mawr Lime that we are kindly given by Joyce and Nigel Morgan Jervis. Sometimes items are brought to Welcome days and anything left over after guests have looked through will go to Ty Mawr for sorting and onward transport by a team of people including Trish, Sally, Hilary, Maureen and Colin.
From the store they are distributed in a number of ways.
Household goods including kitchenware, sewing machines, computers and some clothing , food and toiletries are taken to the drop-in groups such as Unity in Diversity Swansea {UID}, Swansea Asylum Seekers Support {SASS} and the Newport Sanctuary {The Gap Centre} by a number of people including Jonnie, Tina, Vanessa, Sarah and Ailsa. There they are usually very rapidly dispersed to people in need and much appreciated.
people looking through donations at UID
Clothing, blankets, sheets, toiletries, medicines, sleeping bags, blankets, tents, footwear and so on are taken to Swansea Humanitarian Aid Response Project { SHARP} who arrange onward transport to refugee camps in Calais, Greece and the Middle East. We also make monetary donations to help with purchase of underwear, medicines, sunscreen etc and to help with transportation costs.
Household Goods and specific items may be supplied directly to individuals in need via friends, on welcome days, or via volunteers. We also occasionally take items to Oranges and Lemons who help with supply of goods to people in need in Swansea.
Items such as donated Computers and TVs may be given to newly resettled families from Syria via Meg the Syrian Vulnerable Person Relocation Project Officer.
Bikes being taken by Kevin
We also take in bicycles and these usually come via Drovers Cycles, individual donations to Sean or Lawrence or by people making contact to say they have spare bikes. These go to Newport Sanctuary with Vanessa, to Swansea Re-Cycles by Kevin or family or to Cardiff Oasis with Maz or Stuart. In each of these places the bikes are mended , often with the help of people seeking sanctuary and given to people. We have given money to both Swansea and Newport to help buy bike locks and Newport say since they have been supplying D locks they have not lost a single bike.
This week we sent a large amount of Kitchen items to Newport with Vanessa, to UID with Jonnie and Ailsa and eight bikes to Swansea with Kevin. At UID we witnessed boxes being quickly looked through and within 30 minutes all items had found new homes and the boxes were empty.
to go to Newport
to go to Swansea
UID are now in a new place in the High street Unitarian Church . They have been busy tidying the outside so that they now have an outdoor seating area.
