Asylum seekers, refugees and local homeless benefit from over 20 bags of donated clothes

We had a very successful evening during our first large-scale asylum seeker/refugee and homeless persons giveaway.  Some of the donors of clothes came and joined us at our inaugural event and helped us maintain order and organise the queues.  They also helped us with providing hand-sanitizer to the hands of every entrant.

Over 50 people arrived thanks to news of the event being shared by local churches who work with the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers and other charities and community groups doing the same.  We are not sharing images of the asylum seekers as they have genuine fears for their safety and because many of them have religious beliefs that prohibit the use of photographs and images.

What made the event extra special was the fact that after we shared around 7 bags of clothes and other items with the local Salvation Army, they reciprocated the good deed by providing us with over 25 bags of clothes, shoes and other items to be distributed to those most in need in our community.  By the end of the evening still had 18 black bags left (but that included us only having smaller black bags than the oversized ones used by Salvation Army).  Most of the remaining items were for children.

The remaining bags have been submitted to our local cargo company and will be shipped to Pakistan where they will be distributed to poverty stricken families linked to local churches.  We hope they will arrive in Pakistan before Christmas.

Our partnerships in the local community continue to grow and we are really appreciative of how our small operation is becoming a vital source of resources and food for the local community.  This month we have begun to share washing powder for use at the local laundrettes and toiletries for the homeless.

We are holding the second giveaway event on Saturday 20th November and encourage people to bring us any non-perishable foods, clothes (especially winter coats, gloves, scarves and warmer items), toiletries and other gifts that might help meet the needs of people who will struggle through the colder months ahead.

You can also  donate financially for this project by clicking (here).

We are continuing our regular ‘Meals for the Homeless’ every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6pm – 7pm and are serving up to 40 people each day.  The number of users dropped for a while when other homeless food venues reopened after the lockdown, but sure enough most returned to us after that period and new visitors have been joining us too.

One of our regular volunteers is Hannah Chowdhry who you have all been reading about for some time. She was the inspiration for the project and has led in the project management and development of the service.  She has bene so dedicated to the project that when she is able to find free time from her 4 A levels she still visits and serves food at the centre.   Last week Hannah tore the ligaments to her left knee and was required to use crutches but she still attended our meals for the homeless project eager to help people she has come to think of as friends.

Last week on Friday we had an issue regarding our driver who was stuck in traffic mayhem because of an accident which caused a standstill, while delivering food to a local homeless shelter.  The two volunteers from Project Malachi in the picture below then received their food from our volunteer Rajeshri Chouhan and collected the other food from our vehicle and walked almost a mile to our centre for it to be distributed before time.  We were very grateful to the two of them as they were not from the local area and had to use google maps.

Here are some images taken over the last few weeks:

You can  donate financially for this project by clicking (here).