Office supplies donated to help a much-needed west London charity supporting vulnerable women and girls

Salma Ullah, Co-founder and CFO at the west London charity Shewise, only joined A Good Thing at the beginning of the summer, but has already been taking great advantage of the platform. When she spotted The Migraine Trust’s listing of office supplies and stationery recently, Salma was quick to put her request in.

Rethinking and downsizing

The Migraine Trust was in the process of completely downsizing from a huge office on Fleet Street in central London, and had amassed a whole lot of things to give away. The charity had decided it needed to spend its money in a better way, as Debbie Noel of the Trust explained:

“People had become really good at working from home during the pandemic. There were only about six people in the office once a week, so it really didn’t make sense to keep it any longer. It was actually a really good opportunity to sort through the cupboards and get rid of things. There was 40 or 50 years of history there! The move forced us to do a bit of archiving, we sent off some historical papers to The Wellcome Trust.”

Debbie had to do a bit of research into how she would go about rehoming things, and looked into other options before coming across A Good Thing:

“I was really happy to be allowed time to do it in a nice way, to be honest. I’ve been on Freegle for quite a while, and had got rid of some pedestals that way, but this time it was just too much admin.”

All of the best bits

Debbie was thrilled when she discovered the A Good Thing site – and realised how easy it would be to rehome the things she had in the office:

“A Good Thing has all of the best bits of Freegle, but none of the risks: sometimes with Freegle you feel people are hoovering things up to put them on eBay. With A Good Thing you feel people are taking things because they really need them. And it’s a great way to feel connected to the community, to charities that you wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with. The community side is really important.”

Debbie explained how smooth the process was, from listing her things to having them collected by Salma from Shewise:

“Salma was able to come up in her car from Hounslow and take everything she needed. There was tons of stuff, so I just told her to take whatever she needed: I think it ended up being a whiteboard, a pinboard, pens, some filing, some sling files, some flipchart paper… all sorts!”

Breaking down barriers for women and girls

 Shewise is a west London charity that supports the mental wellness as well as the educational, economic and social development of all women – but works particularly with South Asian and Middle Eastern women and young girls. In England and Wales, nearly one in five of us come from a minority ethnic background, and challenges such as racism, stigma, and gender inequalities can affect the mental health of women from these communities. Linguistic and cultural barriers can make it very hard to seek help.

 Salma from Shewise told us a bit about her experience of going to collect the donated items:

 “Getting there was a bit of a mission, to be honest, and I actually ended up getting a parking ticket, but it was worth it!”

 Shewise currently occupies one room in a church hall in Hounslow, but the need for its services is growing and it is slowly building its resources:

 “We’re constantly applying for funding, we really need a permanent space. The administration aspect has really grown as our work has increased. At The Migraine Trust I ended up collecting a flipchart, a whiteboard, some files, some pens, a clock… also an event stand. We run lots of events, so the event stand was brilliant.”

Connected with the Migration Museum Project

Separately, Debbie from The Migraine Trust had listed four computer monitors that were no longer needed at The Migraine Trust, and these were donated to the brilliant Migration Museum Project charity in south-east London. The museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has shaped who we are, and it stages exhibitions, events and a wide-ranging educational programme. The charity got in touch to let us know that although it has an amazing space for its visitors, its office space was slightly lacking. Mona from the museum explained that the monitors would really help the charity’s small team, and Debbie from The Migraine Trust was happy to be matched up.

 Debbie tells us that she had looked into a few other options before deciding to list her items with A Good Thing:

 “I contacted another firm that rehomes things, but their costs were so high. It was going to cost us about £4,000 for a ‘fully managed’ type of service to rehome these things.”

Free and fabulous

 Because The Migraine Trust is itself a charity, there was no charge at all to Debbie for using the platform. And she had a great experience:

 “A Good Thing is not at all fussy – it’s really nice to use. I even like the branding and colours you’ve used: at The Migraine Trust we are very aware of how overwhelming a website can feel, and we actually have a special ‘calm mode’ on our own website. But your site was great.”

Salma was equally happy, and plans to use the platform again:

“I absolutely love A Good Thing. I religiously keep an eye on my email alerts from the site. A Good Thing is very much needed, and there’s so much potential to tap into in west London.”

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