HOW DID THIS BEGIN?

In February 2022 Matt, our Operations Manager’s partner alerted us to a local Polish Supermarket (Food Plus) in Bournemouth needing help to store aid being collected for Ukraine.

Castlepoint acted quickly and opened a large vacant unit (14,000 sq. ft) for donations. We started promoting and appealing to the public, all in partnership with local store and their figureheads Daniel Sulimerieski & Karol Swiacki. The scheme was titled “Help from Bournemouth”.  Little did we know it would end up being called “Ukraine Relief” as it snowballed beyond our wildest imaginations to a national campaign with donations coming from across the UK, including lorries from Scotland.

Local and national TV & Press soon arrived, as the overwhelming generosity of the community captured people’s imaginations. Lorries & vans were queuing for dispatch from Castlepoint, Ferry companies were offering us FREE trips to transport the goods across, big brands and celebrities were supporting the cause! We had to close our donation centre on several occasions just to deal with the volume.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

• Over 216 articulated lorries, with over 3,600 pallets of equipment left Castlepoint between March & May. To date over 1,600 tones of aid has been sent to Ukrainians in need.
• Over 2,500 volunteers to date.
• National TV in the UK (Good Morning Britain, BBC) and Ukraine TV reported LIVE on the appeal at Castlepoint multiple times.
• No one is forgotten from Ukraine Schools, Hospitals to even Military aid has been delivered those in need from Ukraine Relief at Castlepoint.

We are very proud to announce that Karol Swiacki the founder of Ukraine Relief has won the BBC Radio Solent’s Make a Difference Award for all his efforts with organising and running this organisation at Castlepoint to support Ukrainians in need.