Christmas wishes until next year

Christmas kindness – here you can see just a few examples of Christmas gifts and celebrations organised by volunteers for local refugees and asylum seekers.

At the last drop-in of the year, these included Christmas crafts in the playroom and 100 bags of Christmas gifts.

At one of the hotels, gifts included 115 family packs of toiletries, 125 ‘Vinnie’ packs for adults and 148 bags with a variety of gifts, toys and chocolate for children from new born to young adults. It was an absolute delight to see so many happy.

At another hotel a team of volunteers had packed 90 bags of goodies for distribution to adults. 
Special thanks go to Verso Vineyard Church for beautifully wrapped shoe boxes full of goodies for all the children spending Christmas at the hotel and the 14th St Albans Brownie Pack for their decorated shoe boxes, full of goodies, for those children who, along with their families, now have refugee status and are living close by. 

We couldn't do this without the dedication of our volunteers and our wonderful partners!

A huge thank you to St. Catherine’s Church Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Churches Together for providing funding and donations and to our amazing distribution team of HWR and St.Catherine’s Church volunteers including Father Christmas.

Thank you to the St Vincent de Paul Society for the Vinnie bags for cold weather. A big thank you to all the knitters of hats and socks, Goods for Good for donations of stationery, shower gel, bags and hats; and Beauty Banks for cosmetics and toiletries.

We hope that these gifts will help the asylum seekers and refugees, who are separated from many of their loved ones back home, feel welcome in the UK this Christmas time, when many of us here get together with our family and friends.  

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and thank you for all the support over the year.  We will be back in January to continue supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Hertfordshire.