AVOW and PISC need volunteers and funding to help Ukrainians

So many donations have been made, AVOW have had to redirect people to several areas across Wrexham just to manage the load.

A collection was set up for items to send to Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees reside after fleeing their own country due to the war with Russia.

The new Chief officer at AVOW Dawn Roberts-McCabe said: “We are delighted to be supporting PISC in this donation drive, we were excited to be the first drop off point; thrilled that we are filled up to the gills and can’t possibly take any more items at this moment, but the generosity of the community is phenomenal.”

The collection began on Monday and by Wednesday they were full and yesterday (March 3) they have had to redirect people to the Hub and Yellow and Blue as well as other locations, which are now also full.

When the Leader visited AVOW on Tuesday, while donations had been piling in, rooms still had space. On Thursday, those rooms could no longer be accessed due to the amount of item.

BEFORE: an image from Tuesday of Anna Buckley as donations were flooding in

AFTER: Anna Buckley is standing in the same room on Thursday, but it is now full

AVOW were also offered space by Wrexham AFC, Glyndwr University and the Welsh Bank, which they are grateful for.

Dawn added: “It’s amazing and people just keep giving so thank you!”

AVOW and PISC are now looking for as many volunteers at they can possibly get to get the donations out and into vans and lorries, but ask that if you can’t give time, give funds towards the transport of these items.

Dawn Roberts-McCabe and Anna Buckley

PISC's Anna Buckley, who organised the collection, said: “We are begging for volunteers because we didn’t expect that kind of outcome.

“We have five points in Wrexham, including AVOW, which is full so we need at least 50 volunteers so please if you can come to use and help us. We need volunteers and we need vans and we definitely need lorries.”

Anna thinks they may have around 20 lorries in total, which was not anticipated and so the total cost of fuel will go up.

Dawn says that the Red Cross and the refugee Council are also organising collections and information will be on the AVOW website if they stop their collection.

Money can be donated here or using the account number and sort code on the PISC website: http://pisc.uk/

Anyone who wishes to volunteer needs to go to the following address:

F.Lloyd (Penley) Limited

Bridge Road South

Wrexham Industrial estate 

Wrexham

LL139SQ