On Saturday 26 March, companions and staff from Emmaus Gloucestershire donated items to the Ukrainian Church of the Good Shepherd, which is collecting donations to be transported to Ukraine.

We dropped off three cages of items from our homeless outreach service including sleeping bags, toiletries, sanitary goods, tinned food, snacks, and water. These items were added to a lorry which left Gloucester that night to go to Lviv in Ukraine.

Due to the government’s Everyone In Scheme during the pandemic, we accumulated surplus items that we would usually hand out locally in Gloucester. Our companions wanted the surplus items to be donated to benefit individuals in Ukraine and companions Jon and Dave researched how we could this.

The Ukrainian Church of the Good Shepherd is working with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain so there is an official route to collect items and transport them to Ukraine safely.

The Church is currently accepting donations and people are advised to check their Facebook page for up-to-date item requests and donation times. The Church is located at 1 Sidney St, Gloucester, GL1 4DB and its Facebook can be found here.Please note that Emmaus Gloucestershire is not accepting donations on behalf of the church.