WE'RE on our way! Hampshire's very own lorry full of aid, filled and funded by Daily Echo readers who supported our Give Them Hope campaign, was set to begin its journey to Serbia this morning as part of a convoy.

A team of volunteers from Hope and Aid Direct began the gruelling 3,500-mile round trip, through eight countries, to deliver vital supplies to refugees.

The journey was made possible thanks to generous readers who handed over their spare foreign currency which is being converted into cash to pay for the lorry fuel.

Our campaign was launched in January this year, with an aim of raising £2,500.

Organisers say they have now made more than enough following a fantastic response at shops across the county where special green collection buckets were left on counters.

The 7.5-ton lorry will travel alongside a second same-size vehicle from the county which has been funded through the charity organisation.

Both are packed with food, bedding, toys and children's books, toiletries, shoes, gardening equipment, musical instruments and cleaning equipment which had been donated by local people.

It will be part of a 14-strong convoy delivering aid to thousands of people who fled their homes in the Kosovo province of Yugoslavia back in 1999 following the outbreak of war.

Although many returned home, today, 1.3 million people are still displaced including 230,000 ethnic Serbs, Roma and other groups.

Because the military and political situation is still fragile it is not known whether the refugees will ever be able to return to their homeland.

Instead they face the daunting prospect of rebuilding their lives in the war-torn towns and villages to which they fled four years ago.

Charity volunteer Bernard Sullivan, from Hampshire's Hope and Aid Direct, will be making the journey to Serbia.

He said: "We are planning to drive 18 hours a day between us and we will be sleeping in the back of the lorries. It's a long trip but it will be well worth it when we get there.''