Blackwood charity giving away Christmas gifts to children

Helping Caring Teams run by Hayley Thomas 49, has been carrying out the present delivery service for over 5 years.

Donations from members of the public help make this a reality.

Hayley explained: “We started doing it and we loved it, and a lot of people got on board.

“We run a scheme where we buy presents for children who are in need and it’s for various reasons some of them have got disabilities, some of them are homeless, or they are living with nan and aunties, but they all have presents from different members of the community.”Christmas donations for children in need (Image: Hayley Thomas) The charity which was founded in 2019 helps people in Newport, Torfaen, Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent.

Members of the community receive a bit of background about the child’s interests and can pick out presents based on the information.

The presents are delivered by the charity to families around mid-December, last year Hayley’s team helped deliver gifts to around 300 children.  

Helping Caring Teams Leader Hayley Thomas (Image: Hayley Thomas) Hayley said: “With some of these families these will be the only presents they are getting and on Christmas day, so it’ll be the family members that are giving the presents, and they don’t know it’s from the charity.

“We have support from lots of different people a toy factory down in Newport has supported us for years so we can top up any donations from the public.”

She continued: “We’ve got children who are developmentally delayed, we’ve got children who have got autism and ADHD, and we’ve got children who are in very poor situations.”

Helping Caring Teams also advocates for people struggling with homelessness and helps provide homeless people with access to shelter and support.

Hayley’s team known as ‘The Pink Ladies’ visit local communities in a bright pink van and offer supplies.

The Pink Ladies out helping locals (Image: Hayley Thomas) Hayley said: “We do what we can to make people’s lives a bit easier, we used to go to a car park 3 times a week in Newport and the homeless knew where to find us and it just grew from there.”

“We managed to get the homeless of the street in Newport during the pandemic and put them in hotels and it just grew.”

Hayley’s charity work has been recognised across South Wales and nationally.

Earlier this year in April she appeared on BBC’S The One show where she received ‘a One Big Thank’ from host Ian H Watkins.

Christmas donations are now open to members of the public. With more information on Helping Caring Teams here.