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INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE TRUST (IRT) GETS A MAKEOVER!

August 20, 2019

Sharon Hewins As a charitable organisation, we don’t have any spare money to update our work space or equipment. All our furniture was mismatched, shabby, old and in desperate need of updating. Kate Phillips of Handelsbanken had mentioned to me a while ago that her company’s office was being refurbished. She kindly approached her Manager […]

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Sharon Hewins

As a charitable organisation, we don’t have any spare money to update our work space or equipment. All our furniture was mismatched, shabby, old and in desperate need of updating.

Kate Phillips of Handelsbanken had mentioned to me a while ago that her company’s office was being refurbished. She kindly approached her Manager and asked if we could have their old furniture as it was all in really great condition. Luckily, they were happy to donate this to us and a date was set for us to collect.

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We needed a way of transporting this furniture from their offices in Reading, Berkshire to our office in Chiswick, West London. Hiring a lorry was too expensive and so it looked like me might miss the opportunity. Thankfully, Ian Weston of i4Exhibitions, Hook, Hampshire stepped in and kindly offered us the use of one of his company Luton vans, for free! On Friday 12th July, my husband, son (extended IRT family) and I picked up the Luton van and then went on to collect the furniture.

What a lovely, kind-hearted bunch of people I met that day. Ian and Kate especially. While we were busy with the collection, my IRT colleagues were frantically clearing out our office furniture in preparation for when we arrived. It didn’t go as smoothly as we hoped because of a traffic situation on the motorway, but we finally got all our ‘new’ furniture in situ.

WE REALLY CAN’T THANK EVERYONE ENOUGH! WE NOW HAVE A LOVELY WORKING SPACE WITH MATCHING, STURDY NEW-LOOKING FURNITURE, ALL THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF THESE CARING INDIVIDUALS.

A BIG special thank you to:

Kate Phillips – for securing the furniture

Ian Weston – for the loan of his vehicle

Daren and Craig Hewins – for their blood, sweat, tears and patience (in the traffic)

By Sharon Hewins Programme Funding Manager at IRT