Thank you to everyone who contributed to the clothing drive in aid of West London Welcome – a small, hands-on charity that delivers help directly to refugees including the hundreds of Afghan families that have arrived in recent weeks. 

As always, your generosity is astounding. We have collected 1000s of items of clothing for 5- to 16-year-old children including 225 coats; hundreds of school uniform shirts, trousers, and school shoes that are so desperately needed; hundreds of in-demand trackies and hoodies in addition to t-shirts, jumpers, underwear, oodles of trainers and so much more. We also collected 600 books, much needed stationery, toiletries and games.

With the help of a highly efficient team of parent volunteers and Emanuel pupils, we sorted bags and bags of donations in Hampden Hall. A huge thank you to the 20 parents and 6 charity committee volunteers who emptied bags and sorted every item into clothing type and age range and then bagged and labelled them meticulously. Our efforts are hugely appreciated by the charity and will enable their volunteers to quickly access what is needed.

In addition to the clothing drive, we have collected over £2000.00 for West London Welcome. This will enable the charity to supplement our donations where needed. Again, this is hugely appreciated – all funds will go directly to the people who really need our help.

We have delivered over 40 bags of clothes to West London Welcome so far and will deliver a second tranche of 75 bags next week, with our final delivery the week of the 4th October.  If anyone is interested and able to pick up bags at school and deliver to the charity in Hammersmith, please contact Lisa.irwin@emanuel.org.uk. Your help is much needed.

For more information about the charity please follow the link  https://westlondonwelcome.com/

Lisa Irwin (Deputy Development and Community Partnerships Director)