Charities suffering through the pandemic: ‘We’ve had a 50% reduction in sales over the last year’
North East MS Therapy Centre Trim
While some charities receive government funding others are 100% self-sufficient and are reliant on auctions and charity shop sales to keep going. One such charity is The North East MS Therapy Centre in Trim. The service is largely funded by The Twice is Nice charity shop on Emmet Street in Trim which is managed by Georgina Davis.
“The shop aims to raise funds for the local MS therapy centre in Trim”, says Georgina. “We have no government funding so we’re reliant on the shop and an annual auction to raise keep going. About 80% of our funding comes from shop sales.
“We provide a range of functions such as physiotherapy, acupuncture, reflexology and much more all free of charge to MS sufferers. It was also a great social outlet for people with the condition to meet.”
The shop has been moved online over the last few months but sales are nowhere near their pre-pandemic levels.
“We’ve moved online and I’ve been doing a few deliveries. We were operating under a click and collect service for a while but that had to stop as restrictions changed. We have had over a 50% reduction in sales over the last year. We can’t take in any stock because there’s nobody to deal with it as we have a very small working space and a lot of our volunteers are in the vulnerable categories.
“Shops from around the Trim and Navan have been very good to us in donating stock and different pubs had fundraisers over the years for us but that’s all stopped for the foreseeable future.”