Hamlet run out of space for crisis collection

By David Watters

Dulwich Hamlet have run out of space to store donations for refugees after an overwhelming response from fans of the Ryman Premier club and members of their local south London community.

Queues of people carrying food and clothing stretching from the entrance to Champion Hill in Edgar Kail Way to a nearby street filled the club's shed and a turnstile storage area to capacity, leaving proud officials thanking staff at their local Big Yellow Self Storage centre for coming to their aid this week.

After hoisting a banner reading "Refugees welcome" above a drop-off point outside the ground for their Calais Refugees Appeal, the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust had to turn to the West Norwood branch of the storage specialists for help after they were inundated with mounds of supplies from shoes and clothing to food and water for the refugees.

Organisers now plan to rent several vehicles to deliver the supplies to France next month after volunteers met on Wednesday night to start sorting through the donations to prepare their first shipment of aid following a further appeal for bags.

Champion Hill

Champion Hill

Proud DHST member Nisha Damji helped organise the appeal to ease the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Calais.

She said: "I thought I'd probably get a car-load of stuff but I think there's been several car-loads of donations, it's incredible."

In a statement thanking the local company, the DHST said: "Dulwich Hamlet FC and Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Trust would like to record our thanks to Big Yellow Self Storage at West Norwood.

"Thanks to them we can now safely store the items collected and we would like to place on record our thanks for providing space free of charge."

The DHST is still hoping to reach a £2,000 target to help deliver the donations and buy further supplies charities working on the ground need to meet the most immediate and pressing needs of refugees.

For more information email info@dhst.org.uk.

Image courtesy of www.brixtonbuzz.com

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