What (an) Aid Convoy needs

You
We are all volunteers. The most exciting and useful thing you can do, if you are able to, is raise some money, prepare a vehicle, and come along! Let us help with the paperwork and get you addicted to aid work! Naturally, there are also plenty of ways you can help from home too, in particular by utilising your existing contacts, and skills. See the top item in the column to the right, in particular.

Money
Boring, but essential. We are proud of our low-costs and high efficiency. But fuel and ferries are not free, and for us to seriously contribute to re-development, we must put resources in the destination's local economy.

In plain English that means we need to employ the local people in things like our building projects and in teaching English for example. Wages may be low, but real cash is needed. We also have the recurring costs of keeping our vehicles in proper order - insurance, tax, maintainance and so on.

Our guide cost for a convoy is £900 (around €1000) per vehicle. We rely entirely on donations from real people, and from fundraising events. You can make an online donation (using PayPal) by clicking on the button below. They have asked us to add this message: "Donations to Aid Convoy are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes." For other ways to make a donation, please see our contact page. Remember, whatever you do in life, there will be a way to make money that way! The best fundraising ideas are one-offs; unusual and imaginative! For example, our friend Simon Varwell has written a book from which we receive royalities!

URGENT: Bore-hole experts and equipment
We're serious! The funding has been secured for the essential project to dig a bore-hole (well) to supply clean water to 4,000 of the 20,000 inhabitants of Albania's Bathore shanty town. We have an engineering report and know the geology of the area, and local people are working on the neccessary security provisions.

But we desperately need to engage a firm with the neccessary equipment to actually bore the hole. This may be possible to source locally in Albania but we have yet to find the appropriate contracter and so seek to find a British firm interested in travelling with us for an incredible, worthwhile experience, and perhaps some great publicity! Also useful would be appropriate experts to direct the work during one or two brief trips to Albania.

Educational Supplies
Children can't learn to read or write in an empty school, and parents must buy food before books. So we take paper, pens, picture books, dictionaries; even English language novels are helpful. We also take toys, blackboards, and all sorts of other school and childrens home equipment. We regularly receive and update computer equipment from local firms, which eventually form classroom networks. We desperately need more UPS systems to keep computers running in situations where the power supply is erratic.

There is a plan to open a public English-language library in Chernihiv, Ukraine. This will help people to learn English and then to help Ukraine to operate effectively with partners in Europe; this is essential in the provision of jobs. We are therefore collecting all kinds of books in good condition, especially in the form of complete collections.

Tools and Hardware
We are involved in improving heating systems, toilets, and electrical generators. The people we help have the skills to build, but their places of work and infrastructure have been looted and destroyed, or allowed to decay. We do also welcome skilled people, however, because re-training is an issue in some areas and we can offer to be involved with skills workshops.

Medical Equipment
Always welcome, although naturally all supplies must be in-date. People working in the healthcare profession never cease to amaze us with the redundant equipment they find. Naturally, we wish the UK healthcare system was running at peak efficiency. But where equipment is redundant, we're happy to take it! This will almost certainly go to Albania because unfortunately the customs restrictions make it very difficult to transport such things to Ukraine without incurring delays which can drive supplies out of date!

Baby Supplies
Please check with us, because our needs here vary. But we often take nappies and toiletries. Also small toys and messages from individual children really bring out a smile! A successful scheme involves the classic "shoe-box" idea, where each child sends a box with a photo, a message, a toy, and of course a pound coin taped to the box to make sure it gets there! In return, our newsletter will let you see the children who receive these gifts, and where possible those children may write back to their new friends!

Tents, bedding, and clothing
Items which are "high value per weight" are ideal - also things which restore a little dignity to families on the move such as new underwear. However, because we have a number of very keen volunteers collecting (and knitting!) clothing, we do not seek any further sources for this.

Vehicles
We have our own vehicles but inevitably they need to be replaced periodically. Most useful are 3.5 tonne panel vans, like Sprinters and Transits, and Land Rovers with trailers. People who can lend trailers or even long-term parking spaces for them are very much needed!

As you may have read elsewhere, our white Land Rover Discovery 300Tdi, registration N577NFH, was stolen whilst parked in Aberdeen. If you see this vehicle, which may have evidence of our name having been removed from the doors, please contact the police. This vehicle was very clearly a humanitarian aid vehicle, and a theft in the UK seems particularly despicable!

Larger vehicles are sometimes part of our convoys, but they are not always able to travel directly to where the load is most needed, and they can incur huge charges and delays at corrupt (or impoverished!) border crossings and ferries. Queues of trucks can stretch for fifteen miles and take four days to cross an Eastern European border! Smaller vehicles skip these queues.

CB or preferably UHF Radios
Whenever new volunteers join a convoy, we must arrange communications equipment. Mobile telephones are prohibitively expensive abroad, so we always need more suitable mobile radios. If you have redundant equipment, we may well be able to modify it for our frequencies. For our own safety, each convoy carries one satellite phone. More of these are obviously desirable too.