The City of Brno opened a Furniture Bank for Ukraine on Friday afternoon in Pavilion G1 of the Brno Exhibition Centre. It will collect functional furniture from residents and companies to furnish apartments and other spaces intended for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. The joint project of the municipal company SAKO Brno, and the City of Brno’s Departments of Environment and Social Welfare is now in operation after 24 hours of preparation. Photo credit: Zdeněk Kolařík, MMB
Brno, March 7 (BD) – “The Furniture Bank to help Ukrainian families will operate for as long as necessary,” said Petr Hladik (KDU-CSL), 1st Deputy Mayor of Brno and the guarantor of the project. “As a rule, people who flee to us from Ukraine to escape the war should only take with them the bare necessities. It is then up to us together to make up for the temporary loss of their home as much as possible during their stay with us.” According to Hladik, the city is most in need of basic household equipment, especially tables, chairs, wardrobes, beds, but also kitchen units, bed linen and mattresses.
“We are therefore appealing not only to our citizens, but also to companies for help. We appreciate both new and used furniture, but it must be in working condition. We will also open a furniture bank for fridges, freezers and washing machines,” added Hladík.
Complete items of new or used furniture can be donated at Hall G1 of the Brno Exhibition Centre, including beds, tables, chairs, chests of drawers, smaller wardrobes, kitchen units, mattresses, sleeping bags, and blankets. They will be picked up from the site by workers from SAKO Brno and the Department of Social Welfare, who have experience in running a similar service known as Re-Nab, designed to address the housing needs of socially vulnerable families. “We will transport the clean and hygienic furniture from here to the families’ accommodation,” said Hladík. The Furniture Bank for Ukraine is open every day, including weekends, from 12 noon to 6pm, and can be accessed through gate number 4.
At the same time, SAKO Brno, in cooperation with the city, is expanding its scope of assistance from today, as sleeping bags, blankets and mattresses can be brought to six selected waste centres (Dusíkova, Hapalova, Okružní, Sochorova, Veveří and Ukrajinská) before being sent to the Ukrainian city of Lviv. “Based on numerous responses from Brno residents, we are also expanding the collection to include backpacks, pencil cases, stationery, notebooks and toys. However, our request is again that only functional and usable items reach Ukrainian families and children. Unfortunately, it has already happened that some of the donated sleeping bags could not be used because they were torn,” concluded Hladík. As of yesterday, over 300 sleeping bags, 450 blankets and 200 mattresses have been collected.
