The Citizens’ Platform for Support to Refugees has launched an appeal to organisers of festivals and festival-goers to collect sleeping bags. “We’ve had this idea because there is often wastage at festivals and because sleeping bags are difficult to find,” Platform-member Gaia said on Friday.
The Couleur Café Festival has already responded positively to the initiative.
The Platform has already contacted six festivals, targeting the most committed ones as well as those that have large camping grounds. “We wish to reduce wastage while increasing solidarity,” Gaia stressed.
In addition to sleeping bags, the refugees need mainly small backpacks, clothing, gents’ shoes and toiletries. In Brussels, donations can be taken to the humanitarian hub at the Gare du Nord or to the collection points at the Flagey and Place de la Monnaie.
The Porte d'Ulysse, a reception centre in Haren run by the Platform, closed its doors at the beginning of the weekend. However, the humanitarian umbrella may be planning to reopen a nighttime reception centre for migrants thanks to funding granted to it on Thursday by the Brussels-Capital Region.
The possibility of hosting it in a building in Haren, close to the Porte d’Ulysse, is in the process of being materialized.
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The Brussels Times
