Winter Warmth: heating and hot food

by THE FREE SHOP in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom

We did it
On 12th January 2024 we successfully raised £450 ( + est. £97.50 Gift Aid ) with 4 supporters in 42 days

Donations will buy heating fuel and food items (vegetables, pasta, rice, oil, tinned goods, tea...) to distribute to vulnerable families.

Project by THE FREE SHOP

We are six Syrians and four internationals running a free clothing store, menstrual health support and case support for families in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

Our target is to distribute 100 food packs and 100 large bottles of heating fuel through this fundraiser. That's 200 different families (1,300 people) who you can help with a donation.

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A Syrian woman cooking at home in a tented settlement in the Bekaa Valley.

We assist Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese families living in tented settlements, brick houses and small shared apartments. The winter in our area is very harsh and there is snow, very cold winds, rainfall and flooding. People already cannot afford to live a decent life: the winter makes survival dangerous, especially for young children. Despite this, we are still motivated and passionate about our work and have a really strong energy to help our community this winter.

Your donations will keep kids and parents warm during this tough time! We are a small charity, you can see our impact directly on our social media and know that your donation has gone to families in the form of heated rooms and hot meals.

We will do this work as well as running our free clothing shop where families choose coats, boots and wellies, blankets, hats, scarves, gloves, warm socks, new underwear and much more to keep warm.

The costs are:
- a bottle of heating fuel for a family to last 3-4 days costs £12
- a large food pack for a family to last 3 weeks costs £45

We will cover the admin costs. The stipends, the car fuel, the rent and boring bits from grants provided by our funders specifically for winter and emergency support. Therefore your donation will pay for the items that really matter.

Please donate if you can, even a small amount like £ 10 can really make a difference. It all adds up, and turns into food and warm rooms for families.

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In winter 2022, we provided heating fuel to some emergency shelters set up to house families forced to evacuate due to floods. This was alongside other charities who provided blankets, food, transport and emotional support. We also provided clothes and helped with transporting families to the shelter during the storms.

How do we choose the families?

1. they approach us in the shop, then we make a visit later to their homes to see the situation and assess their needs as per our grants policy.
2. we see during our registration that they need help and our team refer them to the "urgent list".
3. another charity contacts us and asks us to help a family they know is in need.

We have to choose who to help and not, trying to reach those who truly cannot get food or heating fuel from other places. It's a challenging task, but it means in the end that we reach the most vulnerable families, especially those with many children, where 2 or more families share one tiny house, or women-led families.

How do families use the aid given?

- for heating fuel, they each have a stove at home called a "soubia". Some people don't have fuel, but wood stoves. We also sometimes distribute wood, but usually not because it's very large to store and there are other charities filling that need. For example, we team up with local charities and they take the wood needs and we take the fuel. The cost is about the same in the end.

- for heating fuel, families invite over neighbours or extended family to spend time in their house. Then, they collectively need to heat less rooms, and save fuel for other days, when they rotate and then go to the house of another neighbour or family. In this way, a fuel bottle which could last 3 days, could last many more as they don't need to use their own resources each day, but share with each other.

- for food, families have their own kitchens and love to cook (delicious!) hot dishes. We therefore just give ingredients, which they otherwise can't afford, and leave families to cook themselves in the comfort of their homes with their own freedom. That's a really important element of our work, hence the name "The Free Shop"! We give a selection of the main ingredients, which we choose based on price and trying to provide a balanced diet. This is logistically easier and cheaper, because we are providing hopefully hundreds of food packs, not just 5 or 6.

More questions?

You can email us at [email protected]
We are a registered charity in the UK, with CIO number 1194346

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Our team and friends from neighbouring charities 😍

We are Khaled, Bashar, Ibrahim, Tahani, Dalal and Hamida, working together to help families in our community in Bar Elias, near to the Syrian border in Lebanon. Thank you for supporting the Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian families in need, who need assistance to stay warm this winter.

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