A 40ft container of humanitarian aid started the two-week journey to Attika Human Support in Lesvos, Greece. This is the eithth container of aid to leave QStore Business Centre in Saltash organised by Open Hearts Open Borders Refugee Aid.
The OHOB summer container was loaded with around eight to ten tonnes of humanitarian aid items including 35 boxes containing hundreds of pairs of new wellington boots, 1,500 bottles of shower gel, dozens of nappies, wet wipes and toiletries, clothing, tinned and dried food, buggies and pushchairs, towels, blankets, sleeping bags, included donated computers from Marjon University for the Better Days Education Project and 12 boxes of teddy bears donated by the Teddies Trust.
Over the last six months volunteers and refugee aid groups and charities from across Devon and Cornwall, including Launceston Refugee Support Group and Bude Refugee Support Group, have collected and sorted through thousands of donated items of clothing, food, toiletries and baby items for this shipment Greece.
Founder and co-ordinator of OHOB, Faraday Fearnside, said: “We work very closely with other refugee aid groups and our partners in Greece make the container shipments happen twice a year. In the run up to the shipments I am in contact, on weekly basis, with Attika Human Support, this ensures we collect and sort aid that is required because needs can change.”
As well as the refugee groups and charities collecting for this shipment, donations have also come from the community, not only in the South West of England, but as far as Norfolk, Reading and East London. Several schools and communities across Devon and Cornwall have donated various items of humanitarian aid. Uffclume School in Exeter collected various aid items including clothing, toiletries and shelter, Devon Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) have been organising collections across the schools in Devon; the amnesty group at Clyst Vale Community College in Exeter organised a large collection for the container of nappies, wipes, food, clothing and toiletries.
Faraday said: “It’s amazing how the community pulls together for each shipment, we are always blown away by the generosity of the South West. So much aid is given when so many people are experiencing their own difficulties. Each time we ship aid it reaffirms to me that there is goodness in this world despite so much bad news and political backlash. I really do hope that one day we won’t need to ship aid anymore, but until that day arrives OHOB will keep collecting, sorting and shipping.”
The second 40ft shipment of the year will leave Saltash in December and will provide winter aid items to support those in the camps during the colder months. The container will be filled with winter items, including several hundred tents and sleeping bags salvaged from festivals across the UK. The most recent van to go to Mobile Refugee Support in France left on Friday, July 5 and was filled with tents and sleeping bags, mobiles phones and batteries and food.
OHOB works in partnership with Attika Human Support in Greece, Mobile Refugee Support in France and in the South West OHOB works alongside One and All Aid, Wadebridge Refugee Community Project, Launceston Refugee Support, Ottery Refugee Response Group, Beyond Borders and Bude Welcomes Refugees.
OHOB and their South West partners also support a number of local homeless and charitable projects across the South West and support with household and essential items and provide household and essential items for resettlement.
Updates are published on a regular basis on the Facebook page and twitter @OHOBPlymouth. For more information email [email protected]
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