A charity collecting goods to ship to children of Aids victims in Kenya has a new base thanks to the company that is revitalising a stretch of Edinburgh’s shoreline

Waterfront Edinburgh Limited, one of three landowners involved in the £1billion regeneration of Granton Waterfront – a 15 year project to deliver 8,000 homes and thousands of jobs - has given one of its units to Edinburgh Direct Aid at base cost and flexible terms.

The 4,372sq ft warehouse space will be used to gather donated goods and sort the charity for sending to the Kenyan orphanage.

At the moment it is using a small storage space in Denny. The charity was founded in 1992 by Denis Rutovitz who brought together like-minded people who wanted to do something to help victims of the Bosnian war. In 1993 one of the charity’s volunteers Christine Witcutt was shot dead on an aid mission to Sarajevo – there is now a centre for disabled children in the region in her name.

Denis said: “We are extremely grateful to Waterfront Edinburgh for providing this space. At the moment our space simply isn’t big enough or close enough to the city centre.

“Our main project just now is collecting for Kenyan orphans. But we have a continuous need for warehouse space. As well as this main project we are still working in Bosnia and we need to be ready for other disasters which may occur.

“We are paying a minimal cost for the space and they have kindly allowed us to have the warehouse on a month-to-month basis. This is really important for us as it means we can plan for the future without being tied.”

The unit is within the West Shore Business Centre at Granton. This is the second unit Edinburgh Direct Aid has had in the area, which offers excellent economic development potential as it is close to the city centre without intruding on the Greenbelt, from Waterfront Edinburgh.

Nina McElroy, Estates Manager at Waterfront Edinburgh, said: “When Edinburgh Direct Aid approached us about getting premises at Granton again we were delighted to help.

“It is such important work the charity does and what it needs is space. Space is something we have and we were more than willing to provide to them with favourable terms and conditions.

“At Waterfront Edinburgh we are committed to developing business in the region, but we are also very concerned with the social aspect of what we are doing. Providing support to Edinburgh Direct Aid is one way we can help those that are striving to make a difference.”

It had used its previous Granton base when it was collecting goods to be shipped to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka and earthquake victims in Kashmir.

Denis added: “As much as we would like to think we might only need the warehouse for a short period of time the reality is there are always disasters and there will always be people in the world screaming out for help.

“We started out in 1992 after witnessing harrowing images on our TV screens of the ethnic cleansing victims in Bosnia. We wanted to do more than just donate money – but we never set out for it to be a long-term thing. But here we are 15 years later and there is still so much suffering out there that we will continue our work.”