Rotary Club of Wickford and Hope and Aid Direct send relief to Kosovo

Please help by donating what you can in terms of practical aid

For quite some years now the Rotary Club of Wickford has teamed up with the charity "Hope and Aid Direct" to provide aid to the underprivileged in Kosovo. Wickford's main interest lies in the schools projects currently managed by Rotarians Bill Nelson and Norman Hollingsworth, whose ideology is "We are pleased to deliver the goods to schools on behalf of The Wickford Rotary Club and Hope and Aid Direct, as we believe the future of Kosovo lies with the children". Surely the best chance to lift out of poverty is education.

Shoes have been one of the priorities of the schools project, as these items are far too expensive for the impoverished people and as a result is last on the list of priorities. If you could see the children and their poor feet - all weathers, inappropriate shoes (sandals in snow, etc), often the front cut out of shoes as the little feet grow. The teachers are in a prime position to know the children's needs, and the teacher will give the time to fit the shoes as accurately as possible and to distribute as fairly as possible.

Shoes are given out on all drops, not just to schools. Adult shoes are needed as well for the same reasons. The ladies tend to be quite small and small ladies sizes are difficult to come by, but all shoes will find a good home. Once the shoes are there the local communities swap and share amongst themselves and so the shoes end up on the appropriate sized feet.

The shoes need to be in a good state of repair, clean, new laces if applicable, secured together and labelled with the size. This makes for easier collating in the warehouse and fair distribution of sizes for each drop.

We also distribute clothes, toiletries, bedding, food, items for schools - stationery, english reading books and tapes, computers, audio equipment. And then there is always money! An immotive word but oh so needed to pay for the transport (diesel) so any donation would be very gratefully received.

Rtn Jackie Snape kosovo@wickfordrotary.org.uk