Hope Street Xchange aims to help charities on International Women’s Day

Hope Street Xchange is aiming to help Smart Works, The Red Box Project, Sunderland Food Bank and other charities during its International Women’s Day event on March 8.

Katy Sawyer, the event coordinator, says: “This is our third year hosting an International Women’s Day event at Hope Street Xchange, but this year we wanted to have a charitable element to the day. The event is completely free to attend, and lunch is included.

“We are looking for donations of smart, new or very good condition used clothes, shoes and bags suitable for women to wear to interviews for Smart Works,” says Katy Sawyer.

The Red Box Project helps girls and women fight against period poverty.

Susie Gibson, coordinator at Red Box Project, Sunderland, said: “We are primarily looking for sanitary-wear donations of towels, especially for the primary schools, and tampons. We also need underwear of various sizes for girls, ages 9 to 13, young women, sizes 10 to 16 as well as black tights in sizes small, medium and large.”

Photo credit: emslivingfortheweekend.com

The Red Box Project currently works with schools in Sunderland and have plans to expand in the future. Susie said:

“We have meetings planned and funding applications in place to hopefully have a Red Box in all 123 schools under Sunderland Council’s administration by the end of the year.”

Sunderland Food Bank has supermarket collection points and centres where food can be donated. Kate Townsend, coordinator at Sunderland Food Bank, said:

“At the minute we would really appreciate donations of UHT milk, fruit juice, tinned fruit, coffee and sugar. People can also donate money or time by volunteering with us.”

Photo credit: sunderland.foodbank.org.uk

One of the speakers in the event, Lauren Robinson, 21, a third-year fashion journalism student at the University of Sunderland, volunteered for a North East Homeless charity before setting up a beauty bank in Sunderland. Lauren said:

Hopefully, by speaking at the event I can inspire others to be active in the community. Not necessarily setting up their own charity but at least by contributing to those which are already running. I just want to help people and give back to the community I live in.”

 Photo credit: http://laurenrobinsons.com

You can still register for the event and help the charities. For more information click here

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.