AN INNOVATIVE Kent-based charity that uses rejected consumer goods to help those in disaster zones has won a top business award.

Blythswood Care, which is based on the Medway City Estate, Strood, uses around £1m worth of goods each month – much of which would normally have ended up in landfill sites – to aid communities abroad and has had its work recognised by winning the Award for Diversity in the SEEDA Sustainable Business Awards for the South East.

And the charity has been quick to acknowledge the help given to it by Business Link Kent (BLK), the county’s business advice agency.

An enforced move meant Blythswood Care's premises were reduced from 70,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft, and more space was needed. With help from BLK, the charity applied for, and was awarded, a grant to add a mezzanine floor to the new premises.

Ray Avenell, volunteer in charge of resources development for the charity, said: "Without this help, I doubt we would be in a position to enter for, let alone win, our SEEDA award.

"Our reduced space was making it difficult to operate effectively and efficiently. Added to that, the rent more than tripled and we were finding this huge jump challenging, to say the least."

Business Link's grant adviser Brian Short said: "We were tasked with helping raise money to help with the move and prevent loss of jobs, which might have occurred if they could not expand and create larger premises."

Blythswood Care specialises in waste diversion and uses or recycles around 1,500 tonnes of goods a year, two thirds of which would have gone to landfill.

The charity has been responding to the needs of the Tsunami victims and sending at least one 40ft container a week. It is helping children in Sri Lanka get back to school and is sourcing specific items, such as wheelchairs for Indonesia and generators for Thailand.

Blythswood also supports communities in the Eastern European countries of Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

It also sends Christian literature to India and Africa and supports missionary and disaster relief work worldwide, including working with the Red Crescent in Iran and the Red Cross in Serbia.