Portsmouth community donates Christmas presents to refugee families
GENEROUS Portsmouth residents helped to make the festive season a bit brighter for more than 70 refugee families after donating hundreds of gifts.
After hearing about the plight of the Care 4 Calais charity, which provides aid and support to refugees arriving in the UK and other European countries, hotel manager Jeanette Warren set up a community giving tree at the Keppel’s Head Hotel in Portsea.
People wanting to get involved could then leave presents and essential items under the tree to later be donated.
Along with the gifts, which ranged from wooden toys and books to nappies and sanitary items, a further £400 was also raised and a number of warm coats were gifted to be given to the charity.
Milton resident Jeanette, 36, said she was ‘overwhelmed’ by the response from the community.
‘People were so amazingly generous,’ she said.
‘I mainly got the word out over social media and so many people wanted to help.
‘They would come in to drop their gifts off under the tree and some of them used it as a way to teach their children about the importance of helping others. The gifts will help support so many families going forward.’
Care 4 Calais is based in Surrey and the charity did not have any people available to collect the gifts.
So Jeanette, who manages the Lady Hamilton pub and B&B in The Hard – the sister venue to the Keppel’s Head, contacted Richmond Hyundai in Farlington for help.
She said: ‘I had bought my car from them so I called and said: “We have all these presents to deliver”.
‘They provided us with a van and driver so we could take them up there on December 22, which was so kind.
‘A massive thank you to everyone who was so kind to donate. This proved the community does want to help.’
It is planned a similar charity drive for refugees will be held at Easter, 2021.