Human Appeal, a Muslim-faith based humanitarian aid charity in Greater Manchester, and Hands On London, a volunteer-led London-based charity who are working in partnership, have announced they have collected a total number of 23,500 coats and counting in collections for the homeless and vulnerable people during the winter months across four cities.
Human Appeal ran collections in Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, in partnership with Hands On London collecting over 3,532 coats. Hands On London, who started the Wrap Up London campaign 7 years ago, have collected over 20,000 coats and counting in London with Human Appeal as their main charity sponsor for this year’s campaign. Meaning the overall total for Wrap Up London, Wrap Up Manchester, Wrap Up Birmingham and Wrap Up Glasgow is over 23,500.
The coats were collected from November 13th until November 24th and Human Appeal were supported by Network Rail, who helped run coat collections at Manchester Piccadilly station, SafeStore who opened many of their self-storage sites across the UK as donation points and people were also able to send their old coats using free label via CollectPlus and wnDirect. The project received cross party support, with support from Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, SNP First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, Conservative Leader of Trafford Council Sean Anstee and Labour MP Kate Green.
Now that the coats and items of clothing have been sorted, they will be distributed by Human Appeal and Hands On London to homeless shelters, refugee centres, elderly organisations, women’s refuges, children centres and other charities across the cities
Othman Moqbel, Chief Executive of Human Appeal, says:
“Now we have sorted all the coats, we will take them to places like homeless shelters. From there, people sleeping on the streets will come to one of the shelters where their free coats are and, from there, the people giving out the coats can offer them help with other issues – whether it’s finding somewhere to live, a health issue, a substance abuse issue – anything. Potentially, those of you who have donated a coat haven’t just warmed a soul, but you could have changed a life too. It is important for we at Human Appeal, as British Muslims to help those in the UK who are most vulnerable during the winter months.”
Jon Meech, Chief Executive Officer of Hands On London, who have been running the campaign in London for 7 years now said of their partnership with Human Appeal:
“This has been a very special year. We have always tried to support the most vulnerable through Wrap Up London, but have been acutely aware that other major cities with a similar need were beyond our reach. Our partnership with Human Appeal has changed that. The partnership has now enabled four cities across the UK to help thousands more people keep a little warmer this winter. 2017 is the year that Wrap Up became a national appeal.”
Human Appeal (www.humanappeal.org.uk) is one of the UK’s fastest growing charities. With a presence in 25 countries, spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and here at home, we help in times of crisis and we deliver sustainable development programmes in the world’s poorest nations. Human Appeal received widespread media coverage in May for their “Muslims For Manchester” scheme where they raised nearly £28,000 for the victims of the Manchester Arena attack.
Human Appeal representatives are available for interview. please email press@humanappeal.org.uk or call Charles Lawley on 07535 415 060 for more details.
Images of the Wrap Up Manchester campaign are available here: https://media.humanappeal.net/?c=933&k=14284e0323
Current numbers are correct as of 12:00 on 30th November. Number is constantly increasing as coats and items of clothing are still being counted.
No. of coats collected 1575
No. of recycled 215
No. of clothes items 800
Total 2590
No. of coats collected 487
No. of recycled 0
No. of clothes items 195
Total 792
No. of coats collected 150 and counting
No. of recycled 0
No. of non clothes items 50 and counting
Total 200
Counted 12,000 (of which 8,000 have already been distributed)
Estimated still to count between 8,000-9,000.
About Hands On London
Founded in 2010, Hands On London is a Registered Charity (1140291) that offers opportunities for people to volunteer with third sector organisations across Greater London. With a huge variety of projects to get involved in, Hands On London is inspiring Londoners to make a huge impact in their communities. Hands On London is proud to partner with Human Appeal to make the Wrap Up campaign national.
For more information please visit www.handsonlondon.org.uk
For media enquiries, case studies and images, please contact press@handsonlondon.org.uk.
Hands On London representatives are available for interviews, please email jon@handsonlondon.org.uk or call Jon Meech on 07399 441895 for more details.
