REFUGEE AID

CLOTHING DONATIONS ARE NOW IN. SHIPPING FUNDS STILL NEEDED. SEE UPDATE.

In the next few weeks staff, service-users and students across Brighton & Hove City Council and local schools are being asked to donate much needed warm clothing for those arriving on North Aegean islands, having fled war, persecution and hopelessness. According to the UN high commissioner for refugees, 30,451 asylum seekers made their way from Turkey to Greece at the beginning of December. As winter has taken hold, there is an urgent need for dry clothing for those arriving and for warm clothing for those existing in camps. If you are reading this, I assume that you appreciate that only sheer desperation drives people to risk the dangerous sea crossing. We hope to receive many donations of clothes, shoes and blankets at our collection points. Whilst council staff and service-users will sort and box these items (in their own time), sending pallets of aid can be costly. I realise that many of you will have already donated to refugees and other good causes recently, but just a few pounds, from many, will allow us to respond to this appalling humanitarian crisis. Any surplus funds will either be used to buy a discounted bulk order of shoes which can be sent directly to the islands or donated to the Clocktower Sanctuary, a Brighton-based organisation,working with young homeless people. Follow Sussex Refugee Solidarity on Facebook for updates on this short-term campaign, Many thanks.