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Guernsey’s new Humanitarian Aid charity is accepting donations from its new drop-off point at the former Co-op Homemaker.
Donations will be accepted at the store at Lowlands Trading Estate from 16:00 to 19:00 on Tuesday and Thursday this week.
Charity founder Natalia Silvester said the charity had secured drop-off points in Poland, Hungry and Slovakia.
Pictured: donations received at the former Co-op home store.
“We have a 40-foot trailer going to Poland on 8 April which is already fully packed with donations for Ukrainian refugees,” said Mrs Silvester.
“We are continuing to collect donations for a shipment to Hungary soon. We are currently going through all the necessary protocols to arrange that transportation.”
The charity has shared a list of desired donation products on its Facebook page which includes baby food, hygiene products, clothing, blankets, towels and sleeping bags.
Mrs Silvester said that the drop-off point in Slovakia will see donations passed to the Blagomai Charitable Foundation which directly cares for 5,000 children from 92 orphanages across Ukraine.
Pictured: the donations received at the Co-op last weekend will now make their way to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Mrs Silvester explained that the Guernsey charity will soon focus on raising funds rather than product donations.
“The needs in Ukraine are changing all the time; we provide lists of what donations are needed from information we receive from contacts directly in Ukraine and the surrounding areas,” she said.
“Moving forward we will be looking to raise funds to purchase food from suppliers near the Ukrainian border, rather than arranging shipments of food items from Guernsey.
“An essential need for refugees is long-life food items such as tinned good which don’t require kitchen facilities.
“We will be looking for corporate sponsors as well as individual donations to help buy food. I would encourage any potential corporate sponsors to contact the charity.”
Pictured: Humanitarian Aid - Guernsey volunteers.
The new donation centre had its first drop-off dates last weekend, which saw dozens of boxes filled with donations.
All charity work has been undertaken by volunteers.
“We simply could not do this without all our volunteers and we are so grateful to them all for their efforts,” said Mrs Silvester.
“We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has, and continues, to donate their time or donate products or funds.”
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