ON December 7, the Open Hearts Open Borders winter container departs once again from Saltash to begin its three-week journey to Lesvos in Greece.

For the last five months, donations have been flowing into QStore Business Centre in Saltash, with volunteers from Devon and Cornwall, including Launceston and Bude, collecting and sorting through the thousands of the donated items. This time the 40ft container will be loaded with around eight to ten tonnes of winter aid items, including sleeping bags, blankets, tents, food and hygiene items and much needed women’s underwear.

Founder and coordinator of the charity, Faraday Fearnside, said: “The winters are very cold in Greece and items such as tents, blankets and sleeping bags are desperately needed at this time of year. There is also a mass shortage of women’s underwear in the camps, so we have ordered an extra 1,500 pairs of women’s pants to go onto the container.

“We were given a generous donation to purchase aid, so I contacted our partners, Attika, to ask what was needed and they said women’s underwear, they had none! Can you imagine living in such cold and desperate conditions, and not having clean underwear — clean underwear is such a simple thing that we take for granted, yet it is being forgotten for the women in the camps.”

Once again, the generosity has been outstanding, with individuals and communities across the region donation many items, and several refugee aid groups and charities from Devon and Cornwall and the South of England have been supporting the container with large collections in their area.

One and All Aid, Launceston Refugee Support, Ottery Refugee Response Group, Beyond Borders and Bude Welcomes Refugees, RAFT in Taunton and the Three Peas in Richmond have all arranged collections and taken in donations to be shipped. Collections are then picked up by Open Hearts Open Borders and dropped off to QStore Business Centre in Saltash.

Faraday said: “We work regularly and closely with other groups and charities to fill our container, and we will collect from as far as London to get the container filled with desperately needed aid. The kindness that exists in the region and beyond is amazing and shows true compassion for others.”

The 40ft container will arrive at QStore Business Centre on Moorlands Trading Estate in Saltash at 10.30am on December 7 and the volunteers will then have three hours to fill it with aid.

The winter aid is then shipped to Attika Human Support in Lesvos, where the much-needed aid will be distributed amongst the camps in Lesvos by volunteers at Attika.

Not only do Open Hearts Open Borders ship to the refugee camps, they also support a number of local homeless and charitable projects across the South West and support with household and essential items for resettlement.

Their focus is primarily on giving back and supporting social inclusion. More details about their projects can be on the website — ohob.org.uk/projects.

Humanitarian aid collections take place throughout the year so that a continual supply of aid from the South West can be shipped. A full list of donation points and what to donate can be found on the Facebook page: OHOB – Open Hearts Open Borders – Refugee Aid or on the website, ohob.org.uk/donate.