The Hand in Hand shop of Spryfield recently sent a shipment of t-shirts to Haiti. Mary Brown, who manages Hand in Hand, says that she wanted to do what she could to help. “Watching on TV the poor little kids, they didn’t have anything,” she says.

Hand in Hand had just received a large shipment of surplus t-shirts when Mary’s daughter called from Montreal to say that she was contributing to a Haiti clothing drive. The shirts arrived at just the right time, says Mary: “They just came in, and she called me a week after…it was probably two weeks after the terrible earthquake.”

So Hand in Hand shipped about 150 t-shirts to Montreal, where they joined a larger shipment bound for Haiti.

Hand in Hand makes an effort to send items wherever they see a need. Sometimes that’s emergency relief such as the t-shirts that were sent to Haiti, and sometimes items are sent to countries where the society has a long-term relationship. Last year, the society sent a shipment of towels, bedding, and sewing machines to Ghana, in West Africa.

Hand in Hand is owned by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. It  provides clothing, bus tickets, fuel, medications, furniture, bedding, and towels. The items are sold for a small fee or given away free if the client can’t afford to pay. “If someone can’t afford, we just automatically help them out,” says Mary. Hand in Hand’s sister charity is Hope Cottage on Brunswick street, which provides food and hot meals to those in need.

Right now, a new Hand in Hand building is under construction at the corner of Drysdale Road and Herring Cove Road.