| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Happy New Year to you and your families. | | | | | | As we approach the end of another year we look back and reflect on our achievements and the challenges that we faced over the past 12 months.
Each day we all battle somehow with our day to day lives, but unfortunately this year saw the end of one such battle for a very long standing supporter of Hope and Aid Direct, Dave 'Freddie' Fishlock. It is with great sadness and with heavy hearts, that we have to announce that Dave passed away peacefully on the 22nd December after battling cancer for 12 years.
Dave had been a long-term volunteer, friend, and a practical chap with a great sense of humour, who we always needed when challenges arose during our trips together to Kosovo. Dave became a regular on convoys with us and was extremely popular. He will be sorely missed by us all at Hope and Aid Direct and by all his friends in Kosovo, but never forgotten. RIP. | | | | Our day to day challenges for 2023 have been minor by comparison, but others also have faced many huge challenges.
The conflict in Gaza that has displaced close on 2m people, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the many conflicts around the world that have resulted in humanitarian issues all need to be thought about at this time, as of course do things closer to home with many people not being able to afford to eat and pay bills.
As a small charity, we have to think very carefully how to work and how best to use our resources. This year the focus has remained in Ukraine, what will 2024 bring, where will we be needed and how can we best help, these are questions for tomorrow and the answers will of course dictate how and where we operate.
Working in Ukraine has been a challenge. It has meant changing how we work, a process that of course started in 2022 and has meant that we have not needed volunteers to fly out to help with distributions. The more centralised approach has meant that we do sometimes feel that we don't always include our volunteers in everything we do, and that needs to change, this is definitely something for the 2024 to do list.
We would love to hear from you if you want to do more and be more involved. We will work out how best to position you in this new framework, change is never easy so hopefully with your continued support we can make this new way of working more effective. Given next year may well operate in the same way, especially if we decide to focus on areas that are not open to truck convoys it is important that we have the right team behind us to continue being effective.
To all of those who have helped make 2023 such a successful year once again, thank you, we cant do it without all of you. | | | | | | During 2023 we sent 11 fully loaded articulated trucks and 2 x 7.5 tonne trucks of humanitarian aid sent to our partner Ukraine on Palms in Ukraine.
This is for direct distribution to those in need, mainly in the east, southeast and Kyiv where there are 20,000+ displaced persons living in temporary accommodation, municipal buildings and shelters. They also deliver to schools, hospitals, and health centres.
Examples of aid sent: Mattresses (via our partnership with Whitbread /Premier Inn… more information to follow in 2024), Sanitary items, food, nappies, blankets, household items, water bowsers or water trailers, water pumps, disability aids, medical items, generators, hygiene.
We donated Frantic in July to our partner Ukraine on Palms for their use inside Ukraine.
We also contributed funds towards the operational running costs of our partners, Ukraine on Palms, including contribution of funds towards a new transit van for in country deliveries, pump trucks etc. | | | | Refugees and asylum seekers living in France. | | In partnership with Herts for Refugees, we participated and supported the collection of tents and sleeping bags at multiple festivals across the UK including Reading, which we then transported using our own 7.5 tonne trucks and articulated lorry, to local partners working in Calais and Dunkirk,
This took place in the summer with the aim of providing some dignity and protection to men, women and children living in areas neglected by governments and larger charities. Grassroots organisations whom we support/supported this year include Mobile Refugee Support, Care for Calais, Womens Refugee Aid, Utopia 56. We filled 2 x 7.5 tonners and our own big rig (articulated truck) with 2,310 sleeping bags and 2,365 tents. Charlie at MRS said ‘ this is the largest single delivery we have every received and will see us through the major evictions this Autumn and Winter’. One of our HGV drivers and core volunteers, Bob, described the truck ‘as the truck that just keeps giving…’ | | | | | | We continue to work with an NGO, trying to move aid to Türkiye. We need to see what 2024 brings for this part of the world which has been particularly challenging this year. | | | | | | This year we have recruited several new Drop off Point Managers into our national network of drop off points!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support and that of your local communities, we couldn’t fill the trucks that we do and provide essential humanitarian aid to those in need without your support!
We are always looking to extend this network so please visit https://www.hopeandaiddirect.org.uk/drop-off-point
| | | | | | We are delighted to advise that this year we recruited Benjamin Western, Co-founder of Indigo Volunteers, Net Positive Business, Showing Up and The Shining Light Project, and long-term volunteer of Hope and Aid Direct, to join the Trustees of Hope and Aid Direct to drive forward our work, and development of the charity, given the continuing and growing need for our operations. | | | | | | As a fully volunteer operation funded 100% by donations and fundraising none of this happens without your continued support.
Thank you for all of your donations throughout the year.
Monthly recurring donations are key so if you or anyone you know has a few pounds spare a month, we will make sure it is used effectively. | | | | | | | | | | You are receiving this email as you signed up for our newsletters. Want to no longer receive these emails?
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