A north-east charity which offers up second-hand goods to fund aid efforts across Europe is expanding to open its third shop in the region.
Stella’s Voice is branching out into Fraserburgh, in a move which creates six jobs and brings a town centre shop back into use.
The humanitarian charity has five other shops across the UK, comprising three in Hampshire one at Inverugie and another in Aberdeen’s King Street.
And soon its sixth shop will open in Fraserburgh, selling second-hand furniture and goods to generate much needed funds for humanitarian efforts at home and abroad.
Mark Morgan, the charity’s Peterhead-based European director, said: “As we try to do when we open a shop, we won’t just open a shop we open up a channel of community support.
“There’s a lot of layers to what we do, as we will be diverting stuff away from landfill, while making second hand goods affordable to locals and raising money to help with our international aid efforts.”
The Peterhead shop opened in 1990 and has 12 staff across its office, drivers and volunteers. That work and voluntary force will be upped by six soon when Stella’s Voice takes over the former M&Co clothing store at 13 Broad Street, which has lain empty since the chain pulled out of the town in August.
“It’s a pretty big site which means we are going to be able to offer furniture as well as smaller items,” Mr Morgan added. “It’ll be a broader range of stock so is better for people locally.
“We are recruiting staff and we need volunteers to get involved and help us too.
“People looking for training and help to get back into work can also get involved.”
Stella’s Voice was set up in 1978, but the shop initiative came later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when it sent truck loads of goods abroad, only to find the same again left behind in the north-east.
“That’s when we realised that if we generated enough from the stuff, by providing a low cost option for people locally, we could use the funds to help overseas as well,” Mr Morgan added.
“We do need to sell a certain amount in the shops but mainly it’s about helping as many people as we can in any way possible. As with any charity the more people who help and support us, the more we can help others.
“We often respond to requests for help from the council and other charities and work with them in a lot of ways.”
The charity collect second hand goods from the likes of the Fishermen’s Mission, Aberdeen Foyer, HomeStart and Cornerstone.
Anyone looking to volunteer or find out more about the charity can visit its Facebook page or website.