A CHARITY has appealed for residents’ help to bring Christmas to some of Southend’s most vulnerable families.
The One Love Project, which provides food and support to those experiencing poverty in the city, has asked for donations of Christmas gifts that can be distributed to struggling young people this Christmas.
The call comes after the charity’s main partner pulled out of their Christmas gift project at the last moment, leaving the 172 children registered for support without presents this year.
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Nicky Ficken, CEO of The One Love Project, said: “We like to ensure that Christmas is taken care of for the families we look after, as it's a hard enough time of year and they don’t need another thing to be worrying about.
“We work with lots of different partners to make sure that each of the children has a gift, and unfortunately, our largest one has let us down at the last minute.
“There are 172 children registered with us, and we want to make sure we can get them all gifts.”
According to Nicky, one of the key priorities at The One Love Project is giving the families they support dignity, regardless of their circumstances.
“We try to be really hot on maintaining a sense of dignity for our service users, because having to come to a food bank is hard enough.
“That means we get the parents to choose the gifts from our donations, rather than just being handed something, and where we can, try to find something their children will generally love.
“If you’re living in poverty, you have so much choice being taken away from you that we just want to give some of that choice back.”
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Nicky said the charity is appealing for any gifts that residents would give to their own children, and said their only stipulations are that they are not second-hand and worth up to £10.
“We are consistently blown away by how the community comes together in Southend,” she said.
The One Love Project evolved from a night-time soup kitchen for the homeless based in a Southend car park to a holistic service supporting those experiencing poverty in the city.
To find out more about how to make a donation, email info@theoneloveproject.co.uk
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