A TEAM of volunteers from a Bradford after-school children's club has personally distributed almost 500 food parcels to stricken refugees on the Turkish-Syrian border.

The five-strong Team Syria, from the Manningham-based W-Childcare, raised more than £20,000 with a fundraising dinner and family fun day to buy and donate the aid.

The group based itself in the Turkish province of Hatay during its two-week stay, visiting the border town of Reyhanli and the remote mountainous villages of Guivechi and Nishreen.

The team was led by long-standing humanitarian campaigner Nazim Ali, who is also general secretary of Bradford Muslim group The Naqshbandia Active Development Association (NADA).

"Our visit was humbling, enriching, and emotionally draining as we provided much-needed aid to the externally displaced Syrian refugees," he said.

"To this end we personally covered our own travel, accommodation and food costs so that 100 per cent of donations reached the needy."

As well as food parcels, the team delivered countless packs including winter items, baby milk and more than 100 toys and sweets to orphaned children.

They also organised a sports day for 200 children in a free school run by Ehli Sunne, a Turkish charity which supports Syrian refugees, providing more than 50 school bags for new students.

The team bought a variety of sports equipment - including footballs, volleyballs, basketballs, skipping ropes and frisbees - for the children and also contributed towards Ehli Sunne's free pharmacy.

Mr Ali said figures showed there were more than nine million refugees in neighbouring Arab countries, with almost one million in Turkey alone as almost 8,000 Syrian refugees crossed the border every day.

"It is important we do not forget about the externally displaced Syrian refugees who are suffering from the conflict in their country," he said.

"The humanitarian situation on the ground is getting worse.

"We visited countless families living in cave-like premises, in partially-built homes with no doors or windows, and in disused factories with electrical wiring everywhere.

"The parcels will provide much needed support as the winter is setting in.”

Fellow Team Syria member Asif Qureshi, of both W-Childcare and JK Travel Bradford, who supported the trip, said the poverty the team witnessed was "truly shocking."

"We provided much-needed baby milk, as mothers couldn’t afford it and were mixing water with sugar as a substitute," he said.

"We heard horrifying accounts of the killing of parents, with many children witnessing the gruesome murders and looking visibly traumatised.

"The toys, sweets, and chocolates we provided put a smile on the faces of these innocent children, which was enriching for us knowing that was the very reason we worked tirelessly in raising such vital funds."