On a gorgeous sunny autumnal morning, I arrived at a local church hall, ready to help sort clothes and toiletries for the local charity Little Village. The charity collects great quality donations of clothes, toys, and kit for babies and children up to the age of 5, and then gifts these donations to families facing challenging circumstances (e.g. homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence).

The donations today were being sorted and delivered to families outside the borough, and a specific list was given to each volunteer detailing the bundles that needed to be assembled, weighed and packaged up. I was asked to assemble 4 bundles for girls aged 18-24 months. This involved looking through boxes of donations and sourcing the correct sized clothing items such as vests, sleep-suits, tops, jumpers, winter coats, shoes, socks, tights, hats, and shorts. Once found, these were combined with toiletries for mum and baby, nappies, wipes and a Little Village leaflet . The parcels were then weighed to ensure they were under the 10kg delivery limit and then sealed up and labelled with the correct address ready to be sent off!

It was a long but extremely rewarding task. Little Village are always looking for more volunteers to help them- check out their website for more information and ways to get involved to support the charity. https://littlevillagehq.org/