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The gift of warmth

November 25 - December 1, 2015
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Gulf Weekly The gift of warmth

TODAY GulfWeekly launches the region’s first-ever newspaper Christmas appeal in a bid to provide help for refugees who have fled war-torn Syria to live in camps across neighbouring countries.

We are asking our readers to open their hearts over the festive period and as they prepare to celebrate National Day and mark Accession Day.

Our ‘Wrap-up for Christmas’ campaign, running until December 20, is simple … we are appealing for just blankets and socks to ensure desperate families living under basic tented shelter do not freeze to death during the winter months.

GulfWeekly has teamed up with DHL, the world’s leading express delivery and logistics company with regional headquarters in Bahrain, which will endeavour to deliver the first supplies by Christmas morning.

St Christopher’s Cathedral in Manama and Bahrain Rugby Football Club in Janabiya have offered to act as collection points for YOUR donations.

Editor Stan Szecowka said: “Following the success of our first international appeal throughout Ramadan we have been encouraged to launch this community campaign which we are confident will also receive the support of our family of readers.

“This is the season of goodwill and we hope, together with our campaign partners, to make a real difference.”

Back in January, it was reported how the misery of millions of refugees who have fled war-torn Syria to live in tent cities across neighbouring countries got a lot worse, after bad weather paralysed the region with freezing temperatures, strong winds and a massive snow storm.

Millions fleeing Syria’s four-year-old civil war have created an international refugee crisis, and many more are now about to face another battle of survival against the elements.

Phil Armatage, DHL Express country manager Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “There is a serious crisis with the refugee situation, and it will only get worse once winter comes along. Our aim is to be able to deliver warmth and support and perhaps some hope that things will get better.

“It is important that people understand the significance of their donations; we deliver on the ground, and can see first-hand the effect of even the smallest contribution. We have a chance to help make a few lives better, and, true to the spirit of the season of giving, we intend to do just that.”

The appeal has already received the backing of one of the world’s greatest rugby players. Former England captain and World Cup winner, Martin Johnson, visiting the kingdom for a sportsman’s dinner, called into the rugby club over the weekend.

As well as inspiring children to take up the sport, he handed over the first donation of socks to the appeal to the club’s chairman, Mehdi Honar.

“It was a marvellous gesture and helped kick off a campaign we are confident will be supported by our members and the community,” said Mehdi.

Bahrain celebrates its openness, and the cultural and religious diversity of the people living and working here. Its communities have been moved by the plight of refugees who have fled Syria to seek sanctuary wherever it is safe.

The Very Reverend Christopher Butt said: “I am sure that all of us will have felt at least two emotions in these past months confronted by the images of destruction and despair that are constantly fed onto our television screens and into our newspapers from Syria, Iraq and surrounding countries.

“The first is a feeling of being totally overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the tragedy that is unfolding in our region. The second is a feeling of helplessness in the face of such vast need.

“So, I welcome this initiative by GulfWeekly and DHL to enable us in Bahrain to respond, in a very practical way, over the Christmas season to meet the needs of refugees, who have fled violence, persecution, the loss of their homes and their livelihoods. And, I welcome the opportunity for St Christopher’s Cathedral to be a receiving point for gifts as well as the rugby club.

“Christmas is traditionally a season of giving. That, in part, comes from the memory of the wise men, who brought their gifts to the newborn Jesus. But it is more radical than that.

“Our giving is a reminder of what we are celebrating at Christmas, that God gives what is most precious to Him: He empties himself to come to a world in need, as one of us.

“As the apostle Paul wrote: ‘He emptied himself taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness’. The message of Christmas is an extraordinary message of God’s overwhelming generosity, and it is the motivation for our response to the needs of the world.

“So I hope that there will be a generous response to this appeal for blankets and socks for those who find themselves in such vulnerable circumstances: simple gifts that will make the facing of a cold winter just a little bit more bearable.

“One person can’t change the world, but you can change the world for one person.”







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