Students from across Dundee have rallied together to donate clothes for refugee camps in Europe.
The event, held at Dundee University’s Student’s Union (DUSA), was organised by students from Dundee, and Abertay University, Dundee and Angus College (D&A), and the charity, Dundee Refugee Support.
It saw donations flood in from across the city with an estimated 200kg of clothes, backpacks, blankets and board games handed in.
The items will be distributed by Dundee Refugee Support – working under the banner of Dundee the Caring City – to camps across Europe including those in Serbia, France, Turkey and Hungary.
DUSA vice president of engagement, Vladimir Ghita, 22, who helped organise the effort, said that the associations needed to act because of political red-tape.
He said: “We have a duty as the next generation to stand with the world we live in, a world where borders aren’t important and social initiatives don’t stop locally.
“As students in a global world, we need to look beyond passports and offer a helping hand to everyone that needs it, regardless of background.
“Politics recently has been creating more divides and it has made me quite angry.
“People outside these borders are just as human as us and we have the power to do something to help them.”
Student representatives from each of the institutions spoke with passion about curbing suffering in the camps, especially as winter approaches and temperatures begin to drop, significantly increasing problems.
Shazz Muhammad, 21, student president for D&A Student’s Association (DASA), said that because of inaction by governments across Europe, including the UK, the students felt the need to step up.
“The UK has only taken 314 refugees and I believe they could take much more,” he said.
“We feel it is our responsibility to help them because this government is one of the worst at helping them, they just aren’t doing enough.”
He also said he felt that one single refugee initiative, working with the other student associations in the city, made sense.
He said: “It is our first time working with Dundee and Abertay and we are hoping to do it much more in the future with more projects planned for November and December.
“We want to improve our relationship with them and also connect with our local community too.”
The collection point was open from 11am until 4pm yesterday and within half an hour, they had already collected over 20kg of items as generous students and members of the public poured in.
A spokesperson for Dundee the Caring City said: “We are so grateful that the students took time out to help and carry items down.
“Many of them don’t have their own transport and they have been lugging big bags down.
“They have always been supportive of us and everything we do as a charity so the day was another big success.”
