As at 31 December 2022 Donations in Kind West Footscray has shipped 674 containers of equipment and supplies containing goods worth $71.6 million to 33 countries and administative regions, with a strong emphasis on items that improve education, medical and maternal care. We also support disadvantaged people of the Australian community.
The Open Day held on 18th March was a great success with a large number of Rotarians and non Rotarians visiting to see the store. Several clubs brought along groups of Rotarians, many of whom had not visited the store previously.
The store looked clean and tidy thanks to the team that did the clean up the previous weekend.
We almost filled a 32m skip with goods no longer of use. One of these clean ups a couple of times each year is most worthwhile. It has also set the store up for what we know will be a number of visitor groups during the World Conference in May.
All we have to do is keep it looking good until then!
Donations in Kind on Film 
Everyone knows that DiK at West Footscray is a treasure-trove of goods for schools and hospitals. Over 650 containers sent to many countries over the past 20+ years are testament to that. It also supplies all manner of mobility aids through many Occupational Therapy providers for their clients.
Our reputation has now spread to the film industry and increasingly we are visited by props masters look-ing for items to dress their sets for movies, TV shows and advertisements. Recently goods were taken for the TV series “Seven Bedrooms”, a new show based on the book "Scrublands", a Furphy beer commercial and a new TV series, “The Flying Doctors”.
These very poor photos show some of the 4 pallets of shrink wrapped material collected to be taken to Broken Hill in preparation for the filming.
The production companies are delighted to wander through the store selecting bits and pieces that will end up on film and are happy to pay us a hire fee for the goods they take. The bonus is they return what they select after the filming!
This presents an interesting sidelight to the usual activity at the store!
Timor Leste
Brother Adriano (left) from the Salesian Brothers in Timor Leste visited Donations in Kind earlier this year. He was here to, among other things, arrange another shipment of school desks and chairs for some of the 64 schools his order operates at many remote villages across Timor Leste.
Those schools are attended by 24,000 children from prep right up to technical college. We were able to show him some of the wonderful new children’s underwear, track pants and shorts we had received from Bonds. His eyes lit up when he saw the goods and told us about the challenges his many families face as they are so poor they can’t afford undies. They wear shorts “ commando style”.
Rotarians from Brighton North, Fitzroy and Malvern have removed the packaging from 11 pallets of beautiful clothing for this purpose. So in addition to the desks and chairs, the container will have a big supply of new clothes to help many of these families.
Ukraine
DIK has again been the focal point for more aid to Ukraine. These photos show the last loading of 17 pallets of warm clothing, shoes, medical supplies and “ For a Meal” packs ready for transport to Amberley Air Force base in Queensland before being flown to Europe. The pallets have been assembled at the DIK store over the past month.
Photo: Andy loading pallets of For-a-Meal with the forklift.