December 2024 Monthly Report
In December 2024, we at Wave served 2095 hot meals, distributed 37 clothing items, and 350 hygiene items, ran 66 showers, charged 133 phones and power banks, and washed 32 laundry loads. Additionally, we sent packages to 29 people detained in immigration detention.
Firefly Hope Project Visit
This month, we were more than happy to welcome back the Firefly Hope Project for a visit – our second this year! During the visit, they distributed 55 thermal sets, t-shirts, hats and much-needed hygiene items, including underwear. As always, they purchased the items we often struggle to keep in stock due to high demand and ensured that everything was bought locally. We are deeply appreciative of Firefly’s continued support in helping us provide essential material items to the communities we work with.
Winter Fundraising Target & Redefine Open Space fundraiser
In November, we launched our 2024 winter fundraiser to purchase essential winter clothing for distribution at our centre and to send to people detained in immigration detention. We are very pleased to share that we surpassed our target before the month was over! Meeting this goal means we can now purchase necessary but costly items such as thermal sets, gloves and sleeping bags. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared and donated to our winter campaign, especially amidst so many other winter fundraisers.
A local initiative, the Redefine Open Space, a volunteer-run cafe in the city aimed at students, kindly hosted a fundraising event for us. As part of the event, there was a talented singer who sang beautiful traditional Greek music with all profits donated to us. Having the support of the local community means a great deal to us so we thank Grigoris, Agape and everyone at Redefine for their generous support!
Festivities in the centre
While we recognise that not everyone celebrates Christmas, we wanted to create a special day at the centre with a festival meal and decorations. Two of our community members from Afghanistan were chefs for the day, preparing a lamb and quince stew with persian rice. The rest of the menu included a lentil daal, carrot and raisin salad, greek salad, tabbouleh and a variety of desserts – banana and date cake, peanut butter stuffed dates in chocolate, energy balls, apple crumble and palha italiana. A huge thank you to Lifting Hands international and Mobile Info Team for sending volunteers during the festive period when we were low on team members!
2024 key statistics
We acknowledge that 2024 has been a year of immense suffering for many communities. Despite this, we want to highlight some significant figures from the year:
30,185 meals served, 1318 clothing items and 10, 365 hygiene items distributed, 1057 showers run, 733 laundry loads washed, 2496 electronic devices charged and 336 packages sent to people detained in immigration detention.
We have many people to thank for helping us achieve all that we did this past year – our co-founders, donors, supporters, volunteers and more importantly the communities we work in solidarity with. For 2025, we hope for an end to the suffering of oppressed peoples and we will continue to work in solidarity with everyone who comes to our doors.