Thousands of children set to benefit from free school uniforms in Cannock

Sheila Brown, co-founder and chief executive officer of Newlife, a charity for disabled children, was offered the uniforms by a leading UK retailer and she contacted the Rotary Club of Cannock to ask for their help in distributing them to refuges and local schools.

She said: “Once the charity had set aside a volume of stock for sale in our own stores we had remaining products.

“As it was brand new, instead of it going for raw-material reclamation we wanted to support communities in need, so we turned to rotary to see if they could help distribute these free-of-charge to children and families in need.

“The Cannock Club took up the challenge and formed a team of volunteers to undertake the project.

"The club quickly involved the Rotary national children charity KidsOut which already had an established distribution network to quickly help children in greatest need of support.

"We love working with partners and Rotary has helped us to deliver on our community benefit objectives, to re-route useful products to alleviate poverty and disadvantage.”

Gordon Moulds, chief executive of KidsOut, said: “‘I cannot thank the Newlife Charity and Cannock Rotary Club enough for the donation of thousands of brand new school uniforms for refuge children.

“The majority of children arrive in refuge with nothing other than the clothes on their back and many have to attend a new school, in a new area, to ensure that the abuser cannot find them.

"It is hard enough changing school during the most traumatic time in their lives but to attend the school without a school uniform makes them stand out even more.

“Little wonder the feedback we have had from refuge staff is so positive about this initiative and we are already being inundated with requests for the uniforms.

"Shelia and Colin Brown should rightly be very proud of making this initiative possible.”