5th July 2018
Call out to all DRS Volunteers and friends!!
Today we start Chapter 3 in the exciting story of DRS!
Chapter 1: The Rat Years seems like a (stinky)distant memory. Chapter 2: DRS Luxury Towers is now coming to an end...
BE THERE as we begin to write the next chapter and help us shape our future!! All muscles, smiles and ideas welcome! Thanks!!
From your house, community, place of worship, your club, your garage....your wonderful Moses Baskets and donations of clothes on Thursday 28th June started on their long journey to Syria!
The DRS team filled the van which was then driven by Liz and Meghan in conditions that can only be described as "Scorchio!" and arrived safely in High Wycombe to be met by Tartar and the team at http://www.highwycombehelpingothers.co.uk/
That's 25 Moses Baskets and 60 sacks full of sorted clothing joining a container of aid to Syria hopefully next weekend.
We really can't thank you all enough!!
Thank you sooo much to everyone who helped organise and/or who attended DRS's first Open day yesterday!! It was a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, celebrate the work we have been doing and to properly thank all our amazing volunteers.
DRS supporter Katy Last and her lovely family provided some amazing face painting and we had visitors from other charities and teams who we hope to work with in future!
The "DRS Quizzy Whizz" was a close competition but narrowly won by Lawrence. The winner of the Treasure Hunt is yet to be announced. watch this space!
Look out for more Open Days in future...we've got a lot of love to share!!!!
By: Amy Sunshine
What a day at Download festival. We have salvaged 4 vans of tents, sleeping bags, roll mats, wellies and a whole load of other random stuff.
There was an awesome bunch of peeps salvaging today from a mix of different grouos including Paris Refugee Ground Support, FWRD - Festival Waste Reclamation and Distribution, LESolidarity and a few others. The majority of the salavaged items have been delivered to and sorted at Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity warehouse
All the items collected with not only benefit Refugee in Europe but also the homeless in England.
There are many other festivals this summer where thousands of tons of perfectly usable it's will be left behind and sent to landfill :'(
If you want to get involved and help salvage this summer then please get in touch.
The more people we have, the more we can save!!
On 27th May the wonderful staff at Lush invited DRS volunteers to take part in their "Charity Pot Event" where proceeds from one of Lush's gorgeous products goes to help local grassroots organisations. Steve, Hafiz, Addo, Hamed, Yasser, Zak, Julie, Lawrence and Sherko took turns to give out DRS leaflets, talk to customers about our projects and meet the lovely team at Lush Derby.
Manager Emily later wrote to DRS to say....
"Just wanted to say a massive thank you to all the lovely volunteers we had instore yesterday, you all really inspired and motivated us. If you have any feedback or comments about the event, I'd love to hear whether its something that worked well or anything you would change, so that these charity events have as much impact as possible.
In terms of totals for the whole weekend, we have raised £468.52 for DRS!!!! This is the total after VAT is taken off, so we actually sold £585.65 worth of charity pot lotion over the 3 days. I'm really proud of our team, and they'll be so enthused to learn where the money goes. Please if at all possible can you send us over any photos of how the money has been used, either your new van, or a photo of the donated soaps you've sent to Syria, we'd love to post a photo on our social media to show our customers what they have helped you to achieve!
Thank you again for joining us in our lovely new shop and keep in touch with all the amazing work you are doing!
Emily + Lush derby team
Tansley Car Boot sale in May sunshine is a very different proposition than the frozen fields of February! So sunny was it in fact that many of the DRS team had to take naps to revive themselves! Not Steve Cooke of course. He is made of sterner stuff....possibly bionic. We made £221 to help fund our various projects and it's all thanks to the generosity of people who donate to us! Thank you soooo much!!
Saturday morning saw one of our favourite events of all the lovely things we do! The amazing Muslims in Need Team organised for a HUGE container to arrive at the warehouse and about thirty of us took several hours to fill it with 16 tons of aid which is now on its way to Syria!
This is when everything comes together.: all your generous donations; all the sorting done by our wonderful team of volunteers; the experience and commitment of the fantastic team at Muslims in Need; the energy and teamwork of everyone who turned up on the day!
Thank you again to everyone who made this possible. Look out for more news when the container arrives at its destination!
Hey! Take a look at your fingers!! Are they green by any chance......?
We need YOU at our new DRS Allotment! Meet amazing people! Learn new skills! Grow your own vegetables! Give them to me to taste!
Sometimes we at DRS like pretend we are "roughing it" down at the warehouse....But just in case you haven't been down for a while, here's the truth..
Although these premises are still only temporary and we continue to look for a more permanent solution, at our current location we have the following facilities; a very large open area; four adjoining rooms organised into Moses Basket and Car Boot sorting room; a kitchen for our sole use; an office with all the filing cabinets you could wish for; a reception area that we have yet to exploit for all its potential.
If you have an idea of how we can make even better use of all this lovely space to help refugees abroad and in the UK, please get in touch!
n the story, Robin Hood was a hero because he stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
In DRS we now have more than sixty volunteer heroes who give up their own time to help others near and far.
(Perhaps our uniform should include green tights? What do you reckon?)
To donate to Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity please click the "Donate" button below and enter the amount you wish to contribute. Thank you!
