South Leeds springs into action for Iraq appeal

South Leeds people are once again taking a lead on a city-wide appeal to gather, sort, and send tons of winter aid out to refugee camps in the Middle East – and they need all the help they can get!

Indeed, whilst the media coverage has focused on those refugees who’ve fled into Europe, the vast majority (90%+) of those who’ve fled the violence in Syria and Iraq are still in the Middle East – and many of them face a punishing winter in very basic refugee camps.

Life in the Iraqi refugee camps (image courtesy of Leeds2Iraq 2015).
Life in the Iraqi refugee camps (image courtesy of Leeds2Iraq 2015).

So last winter saw the first Leeds2Iraq appeal, with hundreds of volunteers from across the city donating 4 tons of clothes and more, sorting and packing the donations, then loading it all onto articulated trucks to be taken all the way out to the camps in mountainous northern Iraq. This year’s appeal is a re-run, but promises to be far bigger.

They are many ways to get involved. Listed below are requested donations – but just as crucially, volunteers are needed anytime from this Saturday (3 October 2015) until Wednesday 14 October to sort and pack the donations (address below). Also urgently needed are as many banana boxes as we can lay our hands on (for the donations to be packed into), and volunteers to collect them from shops. And financial contributions towards the £6,000+ cost of shipping all the donations out to Iraq: click here, or just hand it in at the sorting venue.

For donations, the organisers are requesting the following: care packs for mothers,  pregnant women, and newborn babies (especially), and disposable nappies; winter clothes and coats, new and used (for all ages); new underwear; new shoes or welly boots, or second hand ones in great condition; blankets and duvets, new or in very good condition; Moses baskets and baby bedding in excellent condition; and wheelchairs, zimmer frames and crutches.

The appeal will be based at St Luke’s Church on Malvern Road in Holbeck/Beeston (LS11 8PD). Donations and volunteers (for any amount of time, great or small) are welcome at any time between 10am-5pm and 7pm-9pm between Sunday 4 and Wednesday 14 October.

For further details, visit www.facebook.com/leeds2iraqappeal, email lydiaellen@gmail.com, or call/text on these numbers: 07790 92753 or 07759 558602.