DUNTON, UK - Almost 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid donated by Ford employees in the UK has been shipped by Ford Transport Operations (TOps) from Dagenham Jetty and will soon be making an overland journey from Cologne to Poland, where the two trucks are expected to arrive mid-week.

The £165,000 worth of aid items were collected in just three weeks from seven UK Ford locations and a community hub in Essex.

The project started after Stuart Clarke, Material Flow and Packaging Supervisor, Valencia, and his partner queried how they could send baby clothes to Ukraine, and within hours there was a meeting set up between Stuart, Ford Fund manager Debbie Chennells, MP&L European director Dirk Willmann and German TOps manager Juergen Stoeffel.  

“That saw the project swing into action,” said Stuart. “Some local actions were taking place, so we created an umbrella project to increase the ability to help. 

“A project team was set up that in the end, including volunteers, comprised approximately 160 People.  The core team comprised of experts from their fields including TOps and Customs to understand the requirements and ensure that there were no roadblocks.

“An overriding memory from speaking to people involved has been that we have always received the same comments about how pleased people are to be able to be involved and how pleased they are that Ford has done something that will make a difference.”

“Getting the aid items to Poland has been a joint effort by the UK and German TOps team, and we were more than happy to help,” said UK TOps supervisor Lorraine Keohane.