Members Area

This is the gateway to the members area where internal information is made available to members who are busy  preparing for the next convoy.

Hope and Aid Direct regular convoys usually leave the UK at Easter and again in September. If there is an additional special need for aid due to natural disaster or the aftermath of conflict, then additional convoys are sometimes arranged.

In May 2006 the charity became aware of the terrible floods being endured by parts of Romania. The early melting of the snows in the Transylvanian  mountains added to the already overflowing Danube river. To help relieve the impact on cities, the authorities destroyed some of the flood defences, which mostly affected the poorest, subsistence, farmers who lost their homes, crops livestock and livelihoods in these floods. And this was the second year it had happened. Families and the few possessions they could salvage, were relocated to higher land into tented accommodation.

Very little news of this disaster was included in the UK media and so very few of the usual disaster charities became involved. However, the UK charity, Growing Care, who are located in Romania and who have worked with Hope and Aid Direct in the past, asked if there was anything that could be done for these people who were living on very meagre rations. Within a matter of days, a convoy of aid was organised and was on its way to Northern Romania where the situation was at its worse.

Romanian farmers lost their homes, crops, livestock and livelihoods in the spring floods.

Tina Williams is honoured to lay a wreath

Each year in my community of Cwmfelinfach in the heart of the South Wales Valleys, a Remembrance Day Service is held. As I am known locally for taking part in the 'Hope & Aid Direct' Humanitarian Aid missions to Kosovo, I am invited to lay a wreath in memory of those who gave their lives during the conflict Kosovo.

Cwmfelinfach is a small village located in the Sirhowy valley of south Wales, United Kingdom. It is part of the district of Caerphilly. Located north of Wattsville and about 5 miles north of the nearest town Risca and south of Blackwood.

Cwmfelinfach was home to a coal mining community during the early to mid twentieth century. The colliery, known as "Nine Mile Point", opened about 1905 and closed in 1964.
Cwmfelinfach can be translated as "little mill valley".

The Service is one of reflection and remembrance and in no way aims to apportion any blame or take any particular side. It is as much in memory of civilian losses as it is of the military ones and of course, I am honoured to take part.