Chas Storer Awarded Honorary Membership

This evening I have the very pleasant task of awarding an Honorary Membership to a local man who most of you know – Charles Storer ((known by all as Chas)).

For those who are not familiar with his work, let me tell you a little about Chas.

Chas worked in Banking in the City of London from school age to the last working day of the 20th century. In his own words “I enjoyed my varied banking career with NatWest, and most notably I was in a team of three that started mobile banking for NatWest. Look how far it’s come since!”

In 1996 Chas took a truck of aid out to Croatia in a convoy of 50 smaller vehicles, and what he experienced got “under his skin”. He helped to start Hope and Aid Direct officially in 1999 and has been leading it pretty much ever since, with the unparallelled support of his wife Bev. His financial background has greatly influenced the prudent financial approach that has put Hope and Aid Direct on a sound financial footing.

Let me outline a brief history of the last 27 years of Hope and Aid Direct.

Hope and Aid Direct is a volunteer-led, UK based humanitarian aid  non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1999 in response to the conflict between to Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.^[1] Their motto is "Taking Hope and Aid not Sides". It operates across mainland Europe and beyond, where it can provide direct tangible support to those in need.

1999 – 2020: Hope and Aid Direct's modus operandi was that volunteers raised their own funds, collected and packed aid into hired lorries and drove these out twice a year in convoys across Europe, In partnership with NGOs volunteers handed aid directly to people who needed it most.

The 2015 European migrant crisis took Hope and Aid Direct volunteers direction of travel and aid distribution to mainland Greece, the Greek Islands and Serbia, where urgent support was needed to support the movement of refugees and migrants into Europe, mainly from the Middle East. It also started its support to grassroots organizations in France to provide tents and sleeping bags to support refugees and migrants in France with the continuing annual collection of tents and sleeping bags that are salvaged from festivals in the UK and transported to France.

 In 2015 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hope and Aid Direct volunteers used its
resources (lorries and personnel) to transport PPE equipment to frontline NHS staff working in hospitals across the UK.                                                                                                                                                                
2021 –2023:  Hope and Aid Direct responded to the Russo-Ukrainian war . Hope and Aid Direct altered its operational model in order to deal with the sheer volume of aid being required and being offered and acquired free storage facilities in Essex where aid was sorted by local volunteers. Onward transportation was to Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, neighbouring countries around Ukraine where Ukrainians had fled, and for onward transportation into Ukraine by partner NGOs.

2022 –  to date: Hope and Aid Direct's main focus continues to be Ukraine and uses a backloading cost-effective model to regularly transport essential aid directly into Ukraine (backloading is where a logistics provider, uses the available, otherwise empty space on a Ukrainian truck that has come to the UK, to transport goods during a return journey. This reduces fuel costs and environmental impact while offering lower rates to customers, e.g. in this case, Hope and Aid Direct).

On average the charity has sent and continues to send at least one 40-foot articulated lorry per month to Kyiv for onward distribution by local partners directly into the hands of those in need – community members and service providers - to allow access to essential services and supplies. As of today, the 22^nd October  2026, 110 shipments of  essential aid have been made directly to Ukraine.

Aid continues to be collected by volunteers across the UK and transported to a central Essex store, where a team of core volunteers sort, pack and load humanitarian aid onto the lorries for transportation to Ukraine.

In 2025 Hope and Aid Direct launched a new initiative ‘Donate to Divert’ to redirect surplus goods, considered as waste by corporate companies, away from landfill and incineration and into the hands of those who need it the most.

Chas is not new to awards - 

In June 2012, the late Queen’s birthday honours list revealed an MBE was given to  Charles Storer, from Ingatestone, for services to Humanitarian Aid in the Balkans.

In 2025 as Co-Founder and Head of Operations of Hope and Aid Direct, Charles Storer MBE, was named Humanitarian Logistics Visionary of the Year 2025 at the Visionary Leadership Awards.
This recognition celebrates more than two decades of Charles's dedication to humanitarian service—but it also honours every single person who has made HaAD's work possible since 1999.
For over 25 years, Hope and Aid Direct has delivered humanitarian aid directly to people in most need of it. This achievement reflects the compassion, determination and resilience of our entire community: our volunteers, donors, supporters and partners.