Fundraiser Kathryn Rooney has just returned from volunteering in a Ukrainian refugee centre - and has renewed her appeal for donations to help refugees taking shelter over the border in Poland.
County Durham Councillor Kathryn, 51, travelled to Wroclaw with six other volunteers last month, and said the conditions she saw while there has made her even more determined to do what she can to make life easier for displaced families.
Kathryn heads up a team of Consett fundraisers which is getting ready to dispatch its 15th truck of aid next week. They were moved into action in March after seeing the plight of Ukrainian families displaced by the Russian invasion on the TV news.
Read more: First day at school for Ukrainian teens now safe in Rowlands Gill
But she said nothing prepared her for the deprivation families were facing and urged North East people to keep the donations coming.
"Donations have slowed right down now, but they are still needed," Kathryn said. "I think in the beginning, charities and other collectors were overwhelmed with good and many asked for them to stop, which made people think that had done their bit and nothing more was needed.
"Having seen conditions in the humanitarian hub we were at in Poland, I can categorically say that donations are most certainly still needed. The man who ran the hub had to make a decision whether to supply a lot of people with very little food or fewer people with enough food. He has chosen the first option - which means in the week we were there, 6,000 families were given a bag containing pasta, tea bags, sugar and a couple of tins to last the whole week.
"We had been fundraising before we went to Poland, so we had around £4,000 to spend on food. Makro in Poland said they had never seen so much money be spent just on food, but when you have 6,000 families to feed, it doesn't go very far.
"When I first started fundraising and collecting for Ukraine, we were quite choosy as to what we packed to go over there, particularly with clothes. Having seen conditions for myself now, I wish I hadn't got rid of so much and had sent it on to Poland. It's a desperate situation out there - and what we are seeing on TV doesn't even scratch the surface. We are all desperate to go back and do what we can to help."
The seven volunteers, Justine Harrison, Josie Fairless, Annette Walton, Katherine Hillier, Jayne Lofthouse, Chris McCabe and youth worker Kathryn, set off from Consett last month to the border town of Wroclaw, which has received donations directly from the former steel town.
Kathryn's initial Facebook appeal in March for donations snowballed into a major operation which took over St Mary's Church Hall, in Blackhill, near Consett, for more than two months. Dozens of local people answered the call for volunteers to help sort of the donations for packing into the articulated trucks ready for the journeys, first to Ukraine and later to the border with Poland. In the last few week, Consett volunteers have been joined by Ukrainian families who are staying in the town until the war ceases.
Although Kathryn and her team can no longer use the large church hall to sort through donations, they still have use of the smaller one, and she is appealing to people to dig deep and keep the aid flowing from Consett to Poland.
"We are open every Wednesday and really welcome donations of new clothing and underwear, nappies and toiletries, as well as non-perishable food such as packets and tins. Cans of baked beans and sausages are going down particularly well! We have to say new clothing because we just don't have the space to sort through donations like we had before.
"We are also asking for cash donations and have several fundraisers in the pipeline, such as car boot sales, coffee mornings and collections at various events. But it's a hard slog."
Kathryn says she is overwhelmed by the support she had had from the whole town and still can't believe the response she has had from one Facebook post. "I was watching the news and, like everyone else, just felt I had to do something. I thought I might try to get a few things together, and it has just snowballed from there into something massive. But the need is still there and we want to do whatever we can."
Details of fundraising events can be found at the volunteers' Facebook page here. You can also donate via the link on this page.
Other ways to donate are:
- Drop off at Sty Mary's Church Hall, Blackhill, DH8 8LP every Wednesday (small hall)
- Paypal. Email address: KathrynRooney@msn.com
- Bank Transfer: Sort code: 11-02-53 Account no 01175790
- Cash or cheques payable to Kathryn Rooney - please drop off at St Mary's Church Hall
Now read:
