International Glamping Business and The Glamping Show together with award-winning glamping site Camp Kátur are proud to announce – GlampAid – the glamping industry’s first charitable trust.
“GlampAid is an initiative designed to bring the glamping sector closer through fundraising for good causes,” says Kerry Roy, Founder of Camp Kátur and Glamp Aid trustee.
“As our industry grows and becomes more mature, we are looking for new ways to come together. We felt that fundraising would help us to unite with others we do business with, while supporting those less fortunate than ourselves,” adds Steph Curtis-Raleigh, Editor of International Glamping Business. “Although this is a UK charity, it helps people from all over the world, so I hope our international readers will also get behind it.”
Aid Box Community
GlampAid has appointed its first charity – Aid Box Community (ABC), based in Bristol in the UK. The charity came about in September 2015 when founder Imogen McIntosh saw the shocking images of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi – the Syrian toddler who was washed up on a Turkish shore.
Imogen and a small group of friends began mobilising their resources towards doing something to help. “We’d seen and read about the horrendous conditions in refugee camps in northern France and decided on a single mission – to deliver tents, sleeping bags and 300 aid boxes containing complete survival kits to a small, forgotten refugee camp in Dunkirk,” she says.
The first aid box convoy arrived in Dunkirk in October 2014. The camp was situated on marsh land on the edge of a suburban housing estate. It was rat-infested, waterlogged due to non-existent drainage or sanitation, and at its peak there were thought to be 4000 people living in the most squalid conditions, bordering on starvation.
“With our first load of aid only scratching the surface of what was needed, we had no choice but to keep collecting donations and raising funds to buy essential supplies. Emotional, logistical and personal support for people living in the camp was desperately lacking so we made a commitment to keeping a team on the ground. We remained on the ground until the camps eventual closure in the spring of 2016,” adds Imogen.
Since ABC began, it has mobilised over 300 volunteers from Bristol and the south of England. These kind-hearted people have given their time to either work on the camp or help with the collection and delivery of over 1000 aid boxes and hundreds of van loads of emergency aid to the camp.
ABC coordinated a team of volunteers on the ground in the camp every day for 8 months as well as a team of builders, who built communal kitchens. Working closely alongside MSF and other volunteer groups from across Europe, they helped to keep over 7000 people alive over the winter months.
Miraculously, in all the time ABC involved in the camp, no-one died. Above all, this was testament to the resilience and community of the people of the camp. The camp was moved in March 2016 to a site with better sanitation and facilities. People were provided with wooden huts to live in and had access to a reliable clean water supply. Though still far from an ideal situation, people’s immediate needs were being met. So, on March 22nd 2016 ABC withdrew its team from the camp.
ABC Current Projects
“We continue to work closely with partner charities and organisation who raise funds and support those who have been forced to leave their homes and are stranded in inhumane living conditions in camps or on the streets across Europe,” says Imogen.
“However after witnessing the emotional, social, physical and mental struggles that refugees and asylum seekers face in the UK, we are now dedicating our time and resources to support refugees and asylum seekers in Bristol, who despite landing in the UK are destitute and in need of food, aid and help to become independent and integrate into the community. Many people have been given their right to remain in the UK but now find themselves homeless, alone and unable to access jobs or housing,” she adds.
The Aid Box Community Hub is where the charity continues to collect, sort and deliver life-saving aid to send to displaced people in France and where they run a ‘Free Shop’ where destitute asylum seekers and refugees can access free goods such as toiletries, basic household items, clothes and food. ABC also helps British people on the streets and donates to Bristol’s homeless charities.
“Our next ambition is to move to bigger premises where we can support refuges and asylum seekers with their emotional needs, as well as their physical ones. We are really excited to be working with the Glamping industry in order to raise the funds that are so desperately needed by people who have literally nothing,” says Imogen.
How can we help?
- Glamping sites and glamping suppliers can help Glamp Aid/ABC in a number of ways. The first is through donation. You can donate via this page https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/glampaid
- Why not add a voluntary donation to each booking taken via your website – or add a collection tin to your reception? All companies who make a donation to Glamp Aid will be sent the logo to add to their website and social media as well as being named on the International Glamping Business website.
- Organise an event! Kerry and Steph will help with ideas, motivation and publicity. Let’s get behind this and make a real difference.
- Please donate any unwanted equipment! Tents, stoves, bedding – even accessories and decorative items are all badly needed. Please see the lists below for the items most needed by ABC.
Items Most Needed
Toiletries
- Shampoo & conditioner
- Deodorant
- Shower gel
- Moisturiser
- Toothbrushes & toothpaste
- Sanitary Towels
Clothing
- Men’s clothes especially summer items
- Women’s clothes especially summer items
- Sports kits
- Waterproof macs
- Bras
- Shoes and trainers (especially size 41-43 for men)
- Jeans
- NEW Boxer shorts
- NEWsocks
- NEWladies underwear
Mother and baby
- Nappies all sizes
- Sanitary towels
Food
- Tea & Coffee
- Rice
- Dry beans and Lentils
- Oil
- Salt
- Sugar
- Tinned tomatoes
- UHT milk
- Tinned Fish
- Biscuits
- Dates
- Flour
Household items – for large items of furniture please call us to discuss
- Washing powder
- Cleaning products
- Rugs
- Bike repair tools
- New mops
- Dustpans and brushes
- Working vacuum cleaners
- Decorative items, pictures etc
- Lamps
- Duvets & bedding
- Pillows
Kitchen
- Large saucepans with lids
- Frying pans
- Cooking utensils
- Kettles, toasters, food mixers and blenders
- Coffee makers
- Graters
- Rice cookers
- Pressure cookers
- Microwaves
Items needed for camps in France
Theses items will be sent to displaced people sleeping on the streets of Paris and in refugee camps across France and will help them survive this winter.
- Backpacks – small and medium
- Boxer shorts new – small and medium (tight fit)
- Trainers sizes 38 – 45 especially 42 and 43
- Waterproof coats S/M
- Rain ponchos/ coats/packa macs
- Waterproof trousers
- Sleeping bags (check zips work – put in small plastic bags if they don’t have their own)
- Blankets
- Tents (checked and in a bag)
- Tarpaulins
- Rollmats
- Wind up torches
