Bristol charity Aid Box Community is appealing for storage space as it struggles to cope with a huge increase in demand for its services triggered by a rise in the number of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the city.
Aid Box Community (ABC) has a hub and free shop with some storage on Cheltenham Road – but the increase in donations and rise in demand means it drastically needs more storage space. 
Around 600 refugees and people seeking asylum have been placed in hotels across the city in the past four months, many with just the clothes they are wearing.
ABC director Imogen McIntosh said it had started to turn people away – which she described at heart-breaking as it was not caused by a lack of donations or volunteers.
“It’s due to lack of space to store and sort donations,” she added. “I had to turn away a family from Afghanistan when they arrived with two-year-old twins.
“They needed a pushchair and shoes for the children. We didn’t have them in stock because we don’t have the space.”
ABC is looking for a dry, warm space to rent so its volunteers can sort, pack and then go on to deliver essential items through the click-and-delivery service it started during lockdown to ensure essential living items get to asylum seekers and refugees across the city. 
The re-opening of the free shop for appointments has meant a reduction in space at the same time as the arrival of around 600 additional displaced people from Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and other countries.
Many are placed in hotels while their claims are being processed and they are all in need of clothes, pushchairs and toiletries.
Imogen added: “With more space we could collect more donations and assist many more people, while recycling even more of Bristol’s second-hand items.”
Any business able to help should email Imogen at imogen@aidboxcommunity.co.uk or visit www.aidboxcommunity.co.uk
