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STANDING on the sidelines of one of the kingdom’s biggest charitable sporting events this week will be a campaigning mother who is on a mission to help women ‘slaves’ who have escaped from the hands of terrorists.
Supporters attending the DHL Express memorial trophy match at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club tomorrow evening, staged annually in memory of DHL workers who tragically lost their lives in Afghanistan, are urged to bring supplies of toiletries which will be transported by the delivery and logistics’ company to the victims.
The initiative is the brainchild of Aurora Nolasco, a mother-of-five, who lives in Amwaj Islands. She is hoping to collect up to 3,000 toothbrushes, alongside donations of shampoo, bars of soap, toothpaste, sanitary napkins, baby wipes, small towels, wash cloths and hair-brushes for the women.
“They have nothing. Simple things like a toothbrush, toothpaste and hairbrush would make a real difference as they attempt to get their lives back,” she said.
“The situation in crisis areas around the region requires all the help and support we can provide. Refugee camps suffer from a lack of resources, one of which is a lack of products that provide basic hygiene.”
Aurora, DHL Express Iraq & Afghanistan human resource manager, has just returned from a business trip to the troubled region, and took time during a rest day to visit camps in a Kurdish-controlled area and meet with volunteers of the Seed Foundation charity.
The charity’s main focus now is helping victims who have been displaced by terror group ISIS, also known as Daesh, with a specific focus on the women who have been subject to abduction, torture, rape and sexual slavery.
“The project is very important,” she explained, “where the focus is on developing the skills of these women, so that they can hopefully become self-sufficient.
“We have come across a greenhouse, which they have built in the camp, where they cultivate and harvest their own produce. They also have a facility in camp, where they have cooking classes and learn basic skills in order to feed themselves and their families.
“But they remain in desperate need of basic hygiene items, so we plan on supporting them by getting as much of these items as possible in Bahrain.
“DHL has agreed to sponsor their delivery to the camps; however, we need to spread the message as much as we can, in order to collect the volumes that we actually need to distribute.
“The target is 3,000 items.”
The Seed Foundation has a centre in a camp of 13,000 displaced Iraqis where its services include psychological support and social work, livelihood training to give access to a sustainable income, and other recreational and educational activities for women and their families.
“It was a humbling experience,” said Aurora. “These women are survivors and have been through a horrendous ordeal, some escaping alone, others with young children.
“In this particular camp, we came across 3,000 refugee families. They are mostly women and children fleeing from ISIS, both Syrian and Iraqi displaced families, who have been running away from the city of Mosul and other war-affected areas.”
As the operation to retake Mosul from ISIS ramps up, anti-ISIS forces are detailing some of the atrocities committed by the terrorist group.
An official for the Kurdistan Democratic Party recently told reporters that ISIS has been forcing women into arranged marriages with ISIS fighters and executing women who refuse. The official said: “At least 250 girls have so far been executed ... and sometimes the families of the girls were also executed.”
Special DHL Express collection bins will be placed at the rugby club for the survivors before, during and after the rugby event. GulfWeekly readers are urged to support the initiative.
Annual memorial rugby clashOnce again the DHL Barbarians will be vying for the trophy when they take on a Bahrain Select team during DHL’s annual memorial rugby match.
Currently in its eighth year, the fixture is organised each year to pay tribute to the DHL colleagues who lost their lives whilst working in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008.
To honour their memory, members of DHL’s rugby team from across the world have been flying into Bahrain every year since 2009, to take part in the match and help raise funds in support of local charities.
All donations generated during the 2016 event will be distributed to the RIA School for Autistic Children, the BSPCA, the Bahrain Red Crescent Society, The Christian Cemetery in Salmabad and Bahrain’s very own ‘Dog Father’ Tony Waters who runs a rescue shelter for animals in Saar.
“Initiatives of this nature stand testament to the company’s core value system,” a spokesman said. “The DHL family is a close-knit unit bound by the same philosophy; everyone shares the same passion and dedication for giving back to the communities which house them.”
DHL’s sustainable social outreach programmes are also at the heart of the company’s drive. In light of the refugee crisis, it is contributing to improve the living conditions in the refugee camps by collecting basic hygiene and sanitary items and transporting them to camps in Kurdistan.
Anyone interested to donate much-needed supplies of shampoos, soaps, toothpastes/brushes, hairbrushes, sanitary napkins, baby wipes, small towels and wash cloths, is invited to bring their items to the Bahrain Rugby Football Club and DHL will arrange for pick-up and transportation to their end destination.
The DHL memorial rugby match will kick off tomorrow at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club in Saar at 6pm. This year, the event will also feature a DHL-sponsored Junior Memorial Match for the U8s and U14s which will act as the curtain-raiser to the main game.
