History

Hope and Aid Direct is a UK-based humanitarian aid charity that started delivering aid directly to the Balkans immediately after the war ended in 1999. It was founded by Charles Storer, Michael Kelly and Steve Tarpey with the motto "Taking Aid, not Sides".

Hope and Aid Direct is a 100% voluntary humanitarian aid charity whose team members raise their own funds, obtain donations of aid, transport that aid in convoys of lorries usually twice a year, and give it out directly into the hands of the people who need it the most. Those who make donations include the public, churches, clubs, schools and companies.

The convoys often carry out humanitarian work whilst they are away. Hope and Aid Direct has been involved in projects such as rebuilding bombed schools, renovating orphanages and delivering aid for third parties who would not be as welcome in some areas.

The Charity has links with the Mother Teresa Organisation in Kosovo and various charities in Greece and Lesvos. 

Volunteers come from every corner of the UK and from all walks of life. Whilst in recent years most work has been carried out in Greece and Kosovo, humanitarian aid has also been distributed in Romania, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. More recently the charity has been focused upon the Syrian refugees in Europe. Convoys of aid are regularly being delivered to mainland Greece, Lesvos, Chios and Serbia.

Four team members joined workers in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters seen by any of us.

Since the charities inception we have taken 47 convoys, circa 2,012 tonnes (2,012,000kg) of aid with a value well over £100 million plus, consisting of 340 trucks, 1 cattle truck, 2 transits, 3 ambulances, 1 fire engine, 1 portakabin toilet, 1 40 foot container to Sri Lanka, 1 to Syria, and 6 to the Philippines.