Previous posts have told you that over 500 presents went to Swansea from our area. A large number were donated by Ysgol Pontffranc / Franksbridge School, Llangynidr Primary School , Llangors Church in Wales School, Hay on Wye County Primary School and the Llyn Safaddan group of churches and others were wrapped by members. The Knitters of Llangynidr and St. Michael’s church ,Brecon also donated handmade hats, scarfs and gloves and Crafters in Glasbury donated more gifts.. Here are some photos of the gifts being acknowledged and enjoyed. Note the inventive ways that people have managed to say thanks.
I will continue to update the photos and messages as they come in.
Message from George ‘Many thanks again for all your efforts, it makes such a difference to everyone’s wellbeing’.
From Sandra ‘The second delivery of presents from HBTSR arrived this morning. There are over 300 presents altogether. All wrapped and labelled, many with one line messages from the children whose families provided them. They are really lovely and some are quite large. So there will be plenty to do to get them into bags on Friday morning ready for drivers to collect them.’
Message from Sandra a volunteer supporter in Swansea who stored all the presents donated to Swansea asylum Seekers Support until they could be distributed
‘I know that you have had feedback from George and Thanu about the Christmas gift distribution but here is a summary. The best feedback for me was from a mother who texted after the gifts had been delivered. Her English is minimal. She wrote “Thank you for the love.”
Christmas gifts and a small monetary gift of £10 were delivered to
82 single adults
139 family units. There were 255 children from babies of a few weeks to teenagers in those families who each received Christmas presents.
(These figures are as accurate as possible but may be slightly higher or lower than the actual numbers.)
The 13 goodie bags that were donated were given to singles in shared housing. Care boxes donated by Leonard Cheshire Homes were presented to single adults.
Thank you very much to Hay Brecon Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees for arranging, collecting, sorting and delivering presents from four local schools and six churches.
Thank you to all of the children, their parents and teachers in the schools as well as the church congregations.
Thank you to Leonard Cheshire for the care boxes.
Thank you to the 15 volunteer drivers who delivered the gifts.
This was a wonderful team effort and much appreciated by the recipients of the gifts.
One of the volunteer drivers said that she’d had an “adventure, going to places in Swansea that she didn’t know existed.”
I wonder if you know this poem. I think that it’s worth sharing.
It’s by Howard Thurman who is described as a “mystical, prophetic preacher active in the civil rights movement who studied with Rufus Jones and joined the Wider Quaker Fellowship in the 1960’s”. The poem is in the book, Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights.
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.”
Keep sharing the love
