Send Aid to Refugees on the Greek Island of Samos

Help us ship the aid we have collected to the Greek Islands.

Your donations will pay for the shipping costs of getting our aid from Brighton to the islands of Samos and Leros where refugees are arriving on a daily basis, usually exhausted and soaked to the skin after a traumatic and risky sea crossing.

£250 will pay for one pallet of aid to be shipped - We raised this within 12 hours of starting the fundraiser - thank you to everyone who donated!

£400 which will ship 2 pallets of aid - we raised this within 2 hours of adding the updated goal and expect to definitely collect at least two pallets of aid this week.

We are now only able to ship two pallets at a time SO I am now planning to use the excess money raised to......

A) send a cash donation to Samos to buy urgent baby food and nappies in local shops for refugee children who are now stranded in at the port (and unable to get aid delivered for the time being) due to a ferry strike.

And B) purchase some essentials to add to our first shipment that will maximise the usefulness of the existing donations we've received. I will purchase things like new SOCKS for all, which will mean that every pair of shoes we send will come with a pair of socks in it; new underwear, hats, scarves and gloves and Women's and childrens loose jogging bottoms. This will mean we can make as many complete grab bags as possible with our current donations.

I've changed the fundraiser to be a timed one so that we can collect the maximum amount of monetary donations to send to Samos AND purchase the maximum amount of useful additions to our shipment before it goes.

We are aiming to make our first shipment by Tuesday the 10th November (now DELAYED and more likely to be Friday 13th Nov) . The shipment will take 2 weeks to arrive. We have collected enough aid to send a second shipment in a few weeks (after it has been sorted) which will hopefully mean we can send a second larger shipment.

Currently there is very little support for those arriving. a handful of volunteers are doing their level best to get warm clothing, blankets, food and water to the refugees, many of whom are children. Families are sleeping outside at the port, often just on the bare ground. Volunteers report having to turn down requests of blankets and coats for families with shivering children, due to lack of basic aid.

This update is from 29th October

*** LATEST UPDATE FROM SAMOS ***

From Libby Freeman :

I spent this evening in a living hell. I thought I was used to it by now but nothing can prepare you for this. I couldn't even hold it together for them. Tonight will haunt me forever. There is not enough support. There is not enough food. There is not enough clothing or blankets to cover the hundreds of babies wet through from the boats and sleeping in the open. It's not a camp it's just the port. No tents. Nothing. There is not enough people to help them. There are over a thousand people here tonight, probably over half are children. They are crying everywhere. We're taking our clothes and socks off and putting them on small children. There was seven of us. We couldn't do enough, we had to turn toddlers away for warm clothes shivering next to their pleading parents. There are at least three or four disabled children there. I thought I saw a little boy dead on a pallet with just a coat over him. I'm too scared to think what it's like when it rains. Everyone is so desperate but still so grateful. It hasn't even begun for them yet. How can they walk across Europe without any fucking shoes? If you can come please come. If you can send money send money. If you can help in the warehouse go there. I don't understand how this is happening.

Absolutely heartbreaking.

The situation is only becoming worse. We need help ASAP guys.

The first shipment of aid will go to Samos. Further shipments may go to Samos and/or Leros, who are also in similarly urgent need of aid for similar reasons.