Durable Water Bottles

In the middle of August, Kent Kindness was asked whether we would be happy to supply durable water bottles to the reception centres. The centres were full, and the number of single-use plastic cups being used and then thrown away was wasteful and very bad for the environment.

We agreed that this would be a good thing to do, and sourced 250 durable water bottles at a very reasonable price. Happily, they came though quickly and were duly delivered to both centres.

Donate to Kent Kindness – for free

If  you would like to donate to Kent Kindness without it costing you a penny, please consider shopping through either ‘Easyfundraising’ or ‘Give as you Live’. 

Both are really easy to use.  Once you sign up to them and nominate Kent Kindness, all you have to do for them to donate to Kent Kindness is to do all your online shopping through their portals.  So, for example, if you want to shop at M&S, instead of going directly to M&S, you need to visit either  ‘Easyfundraising’ or ‘Give as you live’ and click on the M&S link there.  It is really easy, and the donations will soon mount up. 

To register please click on either of these links:

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

https://www.giveasyoulive.com/

what’s the need?

There are currently many hundreds of asylum seeking children and young refugees in the care of Kent County Council.

All of them have made a very difficult journey to get to Britain; huge numbers of them are fleeing from war, terror, hunger or despair, and many of them have experienced trauma such as we can hardly imagine. At a young age, they have lived through situations nobody should ever have to face.

Kent County Council is doing a great job, and has managed to find foster homes for all the girls, for the boys under the age of 16, and for a very few boys aged 16 and 17 who have particular needs.

By far the biggest group of unaccompanied child asylum seekers, however, are boys aged 16 and over. These young people usually pass through a reception centre first, where their health, educational and social skills and needs are assessed. After that, they are placed in rented accommodation (a room in a shared house) in various parts of the country, where they live “in the community” while their asylum application is processed. That can take a long time, during which the young people have very little money, are not allowed to take paid employment, may have only limited access to education, and therefore need our help and support.

We have set up our volunteer group to give additional support to the boys aged 16-17 while they are in the 2 Kent reception centres where we work. We aim to help and supplement the activities and facilities already provided by the Kent County Council staff, and we work in partnership with them.

Our central project is to give the boys classes in life skills and basic English, but we are also involved in offering them a range of other sporting, educational and social opportunities. We provide each boy with an attractive book of vocabulary when he first arrives, and a small bag containing very useful items including a nightlight and a torch keyring when he leaves.


WE AIM TO EXTEND A SINCERELY WARM WELCOME TO THESE YOUNG PEOPLE AND TO HELP TO GIVE THEM HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.

If you would like to help us by making a donation, please click here
https://kentkindness.org.uk/donate/

If you would like to find out about volunteering with us, please send an email to contact@kentkindness.org.uk.

We would love to hear from you.

Registered Charity no. 1167921

can you help us with a small regular DONATION?

Kent Kindness is currently trying to help an unprecedentedly large number of boys, housed in two reception centres. Our costs have gone up because of the increased numbers – supplying educational materials, items such as sporting and art equipment, and the small packs of helpful items which we give them when they leave for life in the community.

Kent Kindness is a very small charity and we have no regular income. Could you consider helping us by making a regular donation – any amount, no matter how small, would be most welcome and used directly to help the boys.

If you can help, please go to our “donate” tab where you can set up a monthly payment.

https://kentkindness.org.uk/donate/

With very sincere thanks for your support.

A Successful and Delicious AGM

This year’s Annual General Meeting, held on the 19th of October, was a great occasion and chance to catch up and personally thank our volunteers who could attend.

After happily reflecting on the generosity of donors and what we were able to achieve in the year, we were then treated to a delightful cream tea. We wish to extend and extra “thank you” to our hosts. The London Beach Hotel, who not only catered our event exceptionally, but then donated the costs back to us, adding an additional £225.00 to our funds. We are truly grateful for their continuing support and hospitality.

A Seasonal Donation

We wish to thank the lovely Kent Kindness supporter, who donated a very generous supply of Bramley and Sparten apples to the boys and staff at the Centres. They look forward to making pies and crumbles with the Bramleys and just enjoying the delicious Spartens on their own.
We are all very grateful for such a treat in the autumn season.

Thank You, “We Are With You”!

We wish to extend a huge thank you to the charity, “We Are With You”, who reached out earlier this year, wanting to know how they could help support young, unaccompanied asylum seekers.

As a result, we have received a most generous donation of jackets, T-shirts, trainers, football boots, and toiletries! The volunteers and especially the boys are truly grateful.

Trips to Port Lympne

Thanks to generous donations for the boys’ wellbeing as well as their education, Kent Kindness has recently been able to resume offering trips to Port Lympne Wildlife Park for a few boys plus accompanying adults. This will now take place on a monthly basis for each reception centre we work in. A trip to Port Lympne has always been something the boys really enjoy, and they get a lot of value from the experience . So it’s great that we can once again offer them that pleasure.

So many donations to thank for!

Kent Kindness has received a bumper load of very good condition second hand trainers from Cranbrook School. This is a fantastic donation which is needed and will be very much appreciated by the boys we work with.

Very sincere thanks as well to parishioners from Goudhurst who have collected and delivered several loads of assorted clothing and other welcome items.

Recently too, we have received most generous financial donations from Dulwich Prep school and from a local Trust Fund, as well as from Cranbrook School. Kent Kindness is deeply grateful for these funds which will make a significant difference to what we can do to support the boys; we are also most grateful for donations of money, goods and time from individuals and for the support the boys are given through these gifts.

Kent Kindness offers support and hope to young asylum seekers and refugees who are living in Kent. Our central project is to give them classes in life skills and basic English, but we are also involved in offering them a range of other educational, sporting and social opportunities.