Our van is out of action, we need a new one!
After our volunteers, our old battered van is the most important asset that we have, and it is broken and unreliable. In order to continue what we are doing safely and efficiently we need to purchase a much newer van. The old van was purchased around 3 years ago using Go Fund Me online campaign and has worked hard shifting over £300,000 worth of aid into the hands of people who reply on these items. So right now it is all hands on deck to raise funds to purchase a new one, we have raised around half of our original goal so far.
We’re running a new fundraiser to replace our old van. You can find out more, and make a donation, here!
We need a vehicle that our volunteer drivers feel comfortable and confident to drive from our sorting space in Colwall to Northern France and throughout the UK to get the aid to where it is needed. Without a working van we simply cannot do what we do best, we are in a situation where some of our dependable and dedicated volunteers are unwilling to drive for us whilst we rely on this vehicle. This has resulted in some backlogs of aid items, and has meant that we could not get items to warehouses as fast as we would hope to, particularly when responding to an emergency.
We would use the van for multiple festival salvages helping rescue, reuse and recycle aid that was destined for landfill, last year we were able to collect from Nozstock and two weeks later the aid was in the L’Auberge des Migrants/ Help Refugees. We make our van available to other groups including Evesham Refugee Support and Bromsgrove and Redditch Refugee Support.
We use recycled sacks from a little local brewery to pack our aid, saving them from landfill and reducing our plastic waste and charity costs, these need to be collected on a regular basis and fill the van.
Our van is used regularly to transport our ethical ‘Pop up Charity Shop’ using the clothes not suitable for purpose ( sequined hot pants, wedding dresses, festival dresses) that we sell to help fund our transport costs when moving aid. The van is used two days a week locally and when we are taking aid to Northern France it is used by volunteers to support work on the ground.
