The Justice and Peace Refugee Project reopened in early January after the Christmas break, following a very busy December. Over recent weeks, we have received many contributions of food, finance and clothing from supporters and parishes. We were delighted to receive over one hundred beautifully wrapped hampers from St Mary’s Catholic School in Benton; thank you to all those who contributed so generously and showed such care for those in need in our community.
462 clients have received support once or multiple times over the last three months. New clients continue to register with us from many places in the world, such as Iran, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Sudan, Syria and Eritrea. Many clients have been referred to us through other charities. Our support of all our clients is only possible because of your generosity, which we really appreciate.
Since returning in January, many clients have expressed their gratitude to our volunteers for the help and support that they are receiving. Many individuals thanked volunteers once again for the Christmas gift cards that they received. 60 gift cards worth £15 were distributed to those clients whose asylum claim has been refused, with no government support. 257 vouchers worth £7.50 were distributed to those currently seeking asylum. Many clients have also expressed gratitude for the Christmas gifts delivered to clients’ children by our South Tyneside volunteers.
During the coming months, we are keen to develop further involvement from parishes and engage with more schools. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss how you can get involved.
We receive donations of food, clothing and footwear on Mondays between 10.30am and 1.30pm. Items most urgently needed can be found here.
We are thankful for and continue to rely on your generous financial support for our work. Details of our bank account (DHN Justice and Peace Refugee Project) can be found on our webpage. If your donation is by cheque please send this to St Vincent’s Centre, New Bridge Street, Newcastle NE1 2TQ for the attention of Azad Hasan. Please remember to include a contact name and address when sending in a financial donation to the centre, to ensure that we can acknowledge safe receipt of the funds you have kindly donated or if we need to get in touch. Please consider Gift-Aiding, a Gift Aid Declaration form is available here or you can request one from marjory.knowles@gmail.com or 07929 343418.
For more details about our work and how you can assist, please contact Azad Hasan, Project Co-ordinator at azad.hasan@diocesehn.org.uk or 07407 091184 or visit our webpage.
