How you can help us Keep a Child Warm
We are so grateful for all the support we have received for Keep a Child Warm over the years - from coats, to knitted items, to financial donations, we couldn’t have kept over 10,000 children warm without YOU.
Due to recent world events, we have had to adapt the way we deliver our Keep a Child Warm response. Sadly this means we have had to put a pause on our large-scale distributions in Eastern Europe, and our national coat collections.
However, this has also given us this opportunity to explore new avenues, adapt our way of working, and find new ways to respond to the very real and growing need.
What this means for Keep a Child Warm now…
We are still working hard to keep children warm by providing a winter kit to children in Moldova through our in-country partners and social services, but currently we are doing this on a smaller scale by putting together smaller shipments. This more targeted approach helps us reach the most vulnerable children, however these shipments are more expensive than a large-scale distribution and do take a little longer to arrive. Find out more about this here.
This new approach has also meant that we have been able to build up a good stock of coats, jumpers. hats, gloves, and scarves. Our warehouse is currently FULL of these amazing donations, which we are so grateful for. As storage is tight and we want to focus on getting the wonderful winter woollies we already have into the hands of children who need them, we are currently unable to accept donations of jumpers, hats, gloves, and scarves. We are also unable to collect or receive large donations of items as we have in previous years.
However, we are always looking for large, handmade blankets, as we are using these widely throughout our projects. As well as being distributed through Keep a Child Warm, these blankets are also a vital part of our Crisis Response deployments, and used to keep local vulnerable children warm in our UK-based project, Forget-Me-Notts.
How you can help
If you’d like to get involved in Keep a Child Warm, there are still lots of ways you can help!
Make a financial donation: as shipping costs for Keep a Child Warm have increased, funds to help us get warm items to where they are needed are so valuable and impactful. You can donate here, and include a message if you’d like the funds to go specifically to Keep a Child Warm.
Organise a fundraiser: whether this is taking on a running challenge, organising a non-uniform day at school, or any other idea in between, every penny raised goes directly towards helping children through our projects.
Create a blanket: if you can knit, crochet, or craft, we’re always looking for strong, warm, large blankets (about the size of a single bed) to gift to children in the UK and abroad- click here to find out more.
Donate a coat: although we’re not currently able to receive large numbers of donations of coats, if you have a coat or two that are in great condition and sized for a child aged 3 or older we woud be happy to receive it! We can accept these donations by post, or if you’re local to us, give us a call to book an appointment for you to drop it off at our office.
Share our stories: follow us on social media - a like and a share go a long way! - or give a talk about what we do to your local school or community group to help us share our work with as many people as possible.
If your school or business has previously organised a large-scale coat collection and you would like to stay involved with Operation Orphan, there are other collections you can help us with - please get in touch with us to find out more!
Thank you so much for your support and your patience as we navigate new waters to continue to reach and support the most vulnerable children in our world. As always, feel free to contact us to discuss ways you can get involved!
