Reader’s letter: Fantastic local charity SCRATCH relies on volunteers from asylum seeker community

I spent this morning at SCRATCH – Southampton City and Region Action To Combat Hardship.

This is a brilliant local charity.

I had a tour of the warehouse and logistics set up and was introduced to the staff and volunteers who do so much provide low cost and free home essential to Southampton residents in hardship.

Here’s the thing; the charity relies on around 40 volunteers from all walks of life, with around 20-30 volunteers coming from the asylum seeker community, and who work incredibly hard  loading trucks with furniture and household essentials for local families.

The team here also put in loads of hours at this time of year to make sure the 3,000 families without funds get to provide presents on Christmas Day for their kids.

These are wonderful, hardworking, charitable  people who have escaped persecution. They are happy to work hard for nothing while their asylum case is heard and until they get leave to remain. They then hope to work for pay, contributing to the society that took them in.

SCRATCH would not be able to do the work they do without these great people. Most of the folks I chatted to today had been volunteering for years, waiting for leave to remain. Many of them live at the Highfield House Hotel in Portswood.

John Savage is a councillor for Portswood, Southampton, and Cabinet Member for Green City and Net Zero at Southampton City Council.