Our Wonderful Collaboration with TRAID!

Photograph by Brice Garcin

Greetings from Lesvos! One of the great things about working with Starfish is that it shows how infectious kindness is. We do our best to help refugees arriving here in Europe, and when people hear about the work that we do, they contact us to offer their help. Sometimes French families send a parcel of socks, sometimes American pensioners make a financial donation and sometimes volunteers from all over the globe offer their time and skills. And occasionally we get lovely surprises like this one!

The fantastic London-based charity, TRAID, works to stop wearable clothes from being thrown away. The social and environmental impact of so many textiles being tossed out is vast and TRAID works to reduce waste by encouraging people to donate their old clothes to their charity shops. TRAID also funds international development projects and educates people about how to make sustainable choices in regard to the textile industry. So Starfish was delighted to hear that TRAID wanted to get involved and support our work with refugees here in Lesvos.

People arriving here by dinghy are often soaking wet and don’t have very many warm clothes. The temperature in Greece is dropping fast and it is already snowing in much of eastern and central Europe. It’s vital that refugees have decent clothes for their onward journey and the wonderful people at TRAID have set up collection points in all of their shops in London where people can drop off clothes. The supplies will then be shipped out to us in Lesvos to help ensure that every single refugee arriving on the island can change out of their wet clothes and stay warm and safe.

So please, all you London-based Starfish supporters, drop by one of TRAID’s stores and please give generously!

For more information about the campaign and a list of stores, please go to their website. Thanks so much for all your help!