Less than a month ago, this community centre was the site for religious services, cultural functions and family parties.
Now it's been transformed into a bustling hub where thousands of essential items are sorted, packed and sent to desperate people who've lost their homes in the invasion of Ukraine. The Newcastle Polish Centre (Ośrodek Polski) in Elswick has quickly become one of the central points for donations from people in the North East desperate to do whatever they can to help in the face of the Russian attack.
Every day a huge number of pallets full of food, nappies, batteries, warm clothes, toiletries and more are sent out, bound for locations both inside Ukraine and on the Poland-Ukraine border, where hundreds of thousands of refugees are gathered.
