MAKE A DIFFERENCE

GULFWEEKLY readers are being urged to once more open their hearts and lend the needy a helping hand throughout Ramadan by backing a month-long campaign to make a difference to the lives of Syrian refugees.

Your campaigning community newspaper has linked up with logistics company DHL Express, in partnership with Bahrain Rugby Football Club and St Christopher’s School to deliver clothing to men, women, teenagers and toddlers and useful items to help children with their school work inside the camps where they live.

Readers are being urged to fill boxes with clothes placed at the rugby club in Janabiya and the school will be urging pupils, parents, the faculty and friends to fill shoe boxes with pens, coloured and graphite pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, notepads, as well as small drawing and colouring books.

GulfWeekly Editor Stan Szecowka said: “We always receive a tremendous response from readers to our community campaigns and this is our first international endeavour. I’m positive we can make a real difference.”

DHL Express will deliver the donated items to camps where the desperate, displaced people of Syria have gathered to escape the conflict in their homeland.

Phil Armatage, country manager, Iraq and Afghanistan, DHL Express, said: “We are happy to help in any way possible. It is important to contribute to the communities we operate in and we always stand by the right for education to every child around the world.

“We operate in a tough region but we always depend on our knowledge of the region to make sure we continue to operate in every country in the Middle East. These set of skills and knowledge is what makes us even more determined to support such initiatives.”

Our joint aim is to help ease the plight of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. An estimated four million refugees – around half of them children – have fled Syria during more than four years of civil war.

Around 1.7 million Syrians are now refugees in neighbouring countries like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

In Lebanon, where a quarter of the population are now refugees, the authorities have barred the United Nations from opening official camps. The displaced are scattered across some 1,700 communities.

Some are living in dire conditions. Many have to settle for makeshift settlements, sheds, garages and unfinished buildings. Tents have even been erected using old billboard posters.

Some 85,000 Syrians have also found sanctuary at Zaatari, around 15km from Jordan’s border with Syria, and now one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

Similar tales of heartache can be found on the outskirts of the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Erbil, where urban life can be dated back to at least 6000 BC, and where an estimated quarter of a million have headed to escape the battles.

And, only last week, thousands more fled from Syria into Turkey after intense fighting close to the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad.

As reported in GulfWeekly, earlier this year a supply of much-need supplies was delivered courtesy of DHL Express to refugee camps after an inspired community effort by St Christopher’s School teacher Alyaa Bataineh.

Articles of clothing, books and educational material donated by pupils, parents, colleagues and well-wishers went to the Qamishio School in a camp near Erbil.

Alyaa was helped and guided in her efforts by charity champion Kanwal Hameed, founder of the School of Speech and Dramatic Arts Bahrain. Both quickly offered help and gave advice to launch the Ramadan appeal.

Kanwal has already collected cash in Bahrain with the help of her friend Latifa Al Shakar, and distributed it to non-governmental organisations that provide financial aid to families living in Shatila Refugee Camp, which was originally set up in 1949 in Beirut for Palestinian refugees but is now housing thousands of Syrians who fled their civil war-torn country.

They also donated dried milk, heating stoves and blankets to the Syrian Eyes Group, which supports refugees in the Beqaa Valley in east Lebanon.

The rugby club works closely with DHL Express on numerous sporting and charitable events, and makes an ideal central collection point.

Club manager Bob Phillips, with the backing of chairman Mehdi Honar and its executive committee, said: “We are delighted to support this worthy campaign.”

As Syria had an established and well-functioning education system prior to the onset of the conflict, this has meant that many qualified teachers also became refugees. Many of these teachers have volunteered their efforts to support the education of children both in the temporary education centres established in camps and in urban areas. In addition, qualified professionals and students who were part-way through their studies also volunteered to teach in these centres.

The quality of education is positively enhanced when students have access to good quality teaching and learning support materials that make lessons more interesting and engaging.

Posters and other similar materials can be used to create an attractive and stimulating learning environment and active engagement in learning is also facilitated when children have the opportunity to handle physical items and have access to a variety of reading materials, charitable organisations working in the field say.

Adequate clothing for all ages is also essential.

* On Sunday DHL Express delivered six tri-wall boxes to the Bahrain Rugby Football Club premises to be used to collect and segregate clothing, one box each for men’s, ladies and children and another for the shoe boxes containing pencil cases, note books etc. It will be helpful if readers bringing donations can separate them into the boxes on the spot to save time later. Thank you.