Family-owned business makes 10k donation to pioneering project sheltering refugees

Allied Vehicles Charitable Trust (AVCT) is donating to Positive Action in Housing's Room for Refugees Programme, which has given shelter to over 5,000 refugees and migrants since its launch in 2002.

Now in its second year, AVCT is the charitable arm of the family-owned Allied Vehicles in Possilpark, a European leader in the manufacture of adaptive vehicles for wheelchair users and drivers.

A staff committee meets monthly to decide on donations along with Allied owner Gerry Facenna.

Room for Refugees now has more than 3,000 people on their books after they expanded their programme last year to include people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

The charity has placed 500 families with households in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and is looking for sponsors for others.

AVCT's donation means "more people can be hosted safely" says Robina Qureshi, the charity's CEO.

Describing the gift as "heartfelt and generous", Qureshi said:

"What this means is that more people can be hosted safely and in a mutually rewarding way with a view to rebuilding their lives so that we can do the hosting assessments and the meetings.

"But also, we need more hosts as well, from anywhere in Scotland and across the UK, for people who are fleeing war or persecution, including people from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran as well as Ukraine.

"This will really support our charitable endeavours, but we're really desperately seeking more hosts to come forward, to give us a bigger pool of people to work with from anywhere in Scotland."

David Facenna, Allied corporate culture director, said the AVCT committee had no hesitation in voting to give Positive Action in Housing half of their monthly budget:

"We recently doubled the amount we give to charity to £240,000 a year and, despite the huge demand we all felt it was the right decision to give them this money.

"I have seen Positive Action in Housing's work first hand and they do a brilliant job under very trying circumstances for such a broad range of people and we'll be looking at how we can support them in the future as well."

The charity's senior fundraising officer, Aine Beattie, added:

"Because of AVCT''s generous support, we will be able to build on and increase the capacity of the life-changing support the Room for Refugees Hosting Network provides. These donations will enable us to continue our multi-faceted approach towards hosting, helping our clients regularise their legal status in a sheltered environment- and make a lasting impact on the lives of many more vulnerable people seeking support."