The abysmal level of inflation made 2023 a very difficult year for millions of people in the UK and beyond. The most vulnerable groups in our communities - homeless people, refugees, and impoverished families, bore the brunt of the economic downtown.
Thanks to you, we were able to provide support to many individuals and families. Our poverty alleviation and community outreach programmes were significantly strengthened by the kind input of partners, volunteers and friends who chipped in in various ways to help out. You also enriched our Christmas programme!
Here is what we achieved together:
We provided support to marginalised communities within the UK and abroad to help cushion the effects of the ongoing economic crisis.
We helped create awareness on issues related to poverty and socio-economic rights and attracted the attention of major media organisations in Europe and elsewhere, including the BBC.
We organised over 130 high-impact community events to support homeless people, refugees and disadvantaged members of the community.
We provided advice and support to refugees, homeless people and rough sleepers.
We mobilised thousands of volunteers in London to support our poverty alleviation initiatives in our home city.
This year, we worked with several universities, including The University of Notre Dame in London, North Carolina State University, and California Baptist University, to facilitate community service for undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff. We also welcomed individuals and groups from UK universities, including Kings College, UCL and the London School of Economics.
We distributed over 150,000 meals (including light meals) in our fight against hunger.
We gave out mobile phones and phone accessories to combat data poverty and collaborated with the National Data Bank and another organisation to distribute prepaid sim cards to many service users.
We provided hundreds of humanitarian supplies, including bags of rice, groceries, and other essential items to refugees and underserved groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Europe.
We distributed over 10,000 clothes and clothing accessories to marginalised individuals and groups.
Through our food bank initiative, we provided thousands of grocery items to individuals and families struggling with the cost of living crisis in the UK.
Our Hygiene Bank distributed thousands of hygiene products, including soaps, shampoos, deodorants, wipes, body lotion, grooming kits, sanitary kits, sanitisers, and other items of toiletries to combat hygiene poverty.
We distributed hundreds of gifts to children and families during Christmas.
Working in partnership with another nonprofit, we distributed hundreds of leaflets with information to help homeless people and rough sleepers.
We signposted many of our service users to various services for support.
We provided volunteering opportunities to secondary school students and staff in the UK and abroad.
We appreciate the contributions of all our trusty volunteers, partners and friends from Coca-Cola, Canada Life, Langham Hotel, Gallagher, Hines, CBRE, Infosys, Virgin Media 02, Penguin, M&G, the Financial Conduct Authority, Timberland, Monica Vinader, CI Projects, Wellcome, Johnson Matthey, Seon, Hampshire Trust Bank, Sainsbury's, Microsoft, Amazon, National Theatre, Samsung, Natwest, Coutts, M&S, Lidl, The Manual, Harveyridesbikes, and others too many to mention. Thank you!