CENTRES collecting items for Ukrainian refugees have urged donors not to send other unusable goods like soiled duvets and impractical items.
Volunteers say goods such as posh coffee pods can’t be used and practical things like warm clothes, bandages, sleeping bags, flashlights and first aid kits are all needed.
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While they have stressed they are grateful for people’s generous donations they have asked people to stop dumping “rubbish” at centres.
Volunteers at The Polish White Eagle Club in Balham, London, sorted through hundreds of bags recently after a request for help on Friday
While most will be sent to help needy Ukrainian families, Magda Harvey told ITV News London, they had also been given “junk” after some people appeared to have “cleared out their garage”.
“I think we had every nationality queuing up, some people were queuing for over an hour just to donate something,” she said.
“Some people have done a wonderful job and brought what we asked for, everything brand new, really nice but some people brought old stuff which is really humiliating and I won’t send it anywhere,” she added.
In Dorset, a sorting centre has cleared out 4.5 tonnes of unusable donations with much of it being taken for recycling.
Dorset Council’s Waste Services stepped in to help at Castlepoint, after requests from local councillors.
Callum Anderson, who set up a donation centre in Athy, Co Kildare in Ireland, said he had to “stop donations” because “people were treating it as a clear-out”.
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Anderson told The Times: “We were fussy with what we took, because it was our aim to deliver necessary stuff.
“We had a lady contact us to say she had some high-end clothes and high-end accessories. And I was just thinking someone running from war in Ukraine doesn’t need a Gucci handbag.”
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At another centre, run by Agata Laszcynska in Drogheada, Co Louth, clothes poured in but many proved to be impractical due to the weather conditions in Ukraine.
“Clothes that didn’t suit the weather – maybe some people don’t realise how cold it is there – stayed here,” she said. “They will be kept for refugees entering Ireland. What we wanted the most was men’s shoes for the army for Ukrainian fighters because many don’t have good enough shoes.”
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In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.
For more information visit https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund
“We got a few high heels that no woman would wear in normal circumstances; you can‘t walk in them. We got coffee pods for the fancy Nespresso machines, that’s the weirdest thing we got. And we got two boxes of Red Bull.”
A centre in Lucan has amassed three “big piles of rubbish,” according to Kasia Kuty, including one particularly dirty duvet which was covered in “p**s stains” as well as food that had expired and a few “broken buggies”.
Fortunately, Kuty has been able to send off two shipments to Poland.
She said: “There is no problem with getting clothes: they have enough. They need toiletries, baby food, nappies, and wipes.”
Towels and warm blankets are also important, Kuty said.
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The Irish Red Cross has emphasised the best way to help is with cash, as sending goods adds to the strain on transport system.
Etain Usher, who runs Tralee Food Aid in Co Kerry was overwhelmed by the generous response, saying it had been “absolutely amazing”.
Usher said: “It was absolutely crazy. We went through everything ourselves — it was a lot of donations — and catalogued it all to make sure we knew what was going over.”
Although some items were discarded such as used bedsheets and six pairs of newly-bought brown leather trousers.
Renata Boksa in Trim, Co Meath, said she had stopped asking for clothing after getting a pile of old and dirty shirts.
“We had some clothes we had to throw away, they smelled bad and like they had been sitting in the attic for a few years. We don’t really advertise that we are collecting clothes to avoid that,” she said.
Anna Stojeck in Laytown is currently preparing to two crates to Poland, packed with medical aid which in turn will be shipped to Ukraine.
“Right now the pharmacies in Poland are low on painkillers and bandages that have been bought and sent to Ukraine. So first aid stuff like that is needed now. And refugees in Poland don’t need more clothes; they need places to stay and to live,” she said.
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