Tonnes of aid on way after Telford2Syria appeal
Two 40ft containers full of clothes, food and other essentials are on their way out to refugee camps in Syria – thanks to the generosity of people in Shropshire and beyond.
A 30-tonne container filled as part of Shropshire Islamic Foundation's Telford2Syria appeal was sent out to Syria yesterday. Another will be shipped out next week, and bosses of the foundation said they had been left stunned by people's generosity.
The Telford2Syria appeal was launched on Christmas Day with the original aim of filling one 30-tonne container at the foundation's base in King Street, Wellington.
Wehid Iqbal, of the foundation, said: "We launched it on Christmas Day with the aim of filling one container to go out to Syria to help refugees. It got a fair bit of media attention and the response then has just been fantastic.
"We have been deluged with donations, not just from Shropshire either: we have had things given in from as far away as Wolverhampton and Walsall.
"A wide range of things have been handed in. With the camps we are trying to help, 80 per cent of them are made up of women and children, so we have things like nappies, baby formula, bottles, women's sanitary products. But there has also been clothing, food and all kinds of other things.
"We have had local Christian churches supporting us; the Quaker community has got behind us, as have the Jewish and Sikh communities. It just shows what you can do when everybody works together – we have been stunned but delighted by the response.
"We would like to thank everyone who donated."
The first container's progress can be tracked via the Twitter hashtag #telford2syria.
