Sunderland’s Geek Retreat helping Ukrainian refugees after landlord gives them empty unit for donations

Sunderland’s Geek Retreat owners Stewart Brass and Laura Green have been granted access to an empty unit by their landlord to store donations for Ukrainian refugees following the Russian invasion last week.

The gaming cafe, on John Street, will be gathering donations to give to the Polish Parish in Newcastle who will then send them to a refugee camp based on the Poland/Ukraine border.

Stewart has expressed his “pride” in being able to accept donations which will help those in need and stated that there isn’t much of a limit on the amount of goods that they can store.

He said: “Obviously in the social media age, it exposes us to exactly what is going on in Ukraine – seeing videos of bombs exploding and the destruction makes it much more real.

"I think that we are quite fortunate that our landlord has given us access to an empty unit which means that we are not limited to the amount of donations that we can take.

"We just believe that if we can help out, then we should be and we are proud to be doing so as it is the minimum that we can do.

"It is times like this where I feel that my business can pause while we help people out who need it most.”

Even though the cafe only started doing accepting donations on Wednesday afternoon (March 2), they have already had an influx of products that will be sent abroad.

Stewart added: “We’ve had people drop off brand new baby clothes, toothbrushes and many different toiletries so it has been a good start so far.

"Sunderland College have said that some of their students are wanting to get involved and we’ve been in contact with AK Teaching who are also putting an appeal out to local schools to boost donations.

“We’re hoping that by next Friday (March 11) that some of the students at Sunderland College will be able to come and volunteer to help us sort through all the donations.”

If you wish to view a full list of Geek Retreat would like you to donate, then click here.

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