Hi Everyone, here’s an update on our winter clothing appeal for the Syrian orphans living in Arsal, Lebanon.
Thanks to the generosity of Betty, Gwynfor, Penny, Barry, Henna, shaz and Max, We have now secured the sum of £375. This currently equates to approximately $419 which will be enough to purchase a winter jacket, hat, scarf , gloves, blanket and small toy for fourteen out of the thirty-four children that we are hoping to cover. It has always been our intention to treat every child equally, so if anyone else could please consider making a donation to help make this possible, we would be extremely grateful. Please feel free to use our Donate link where you will find various payment options, or details of our charity bank account. We would also really appreciate it if you could please share this post.
STOP PRESS!!! Stuck for Christmas gift ideas?
We now have gift cards supporting this appeal available to purchase, thanks to our good friend Laura Buckingham. The value on the cards increases in increments of £5, starting at £5 and increasing to £25. If you would like to purchase one or more of our cards as a unique gift for a friend, please private message Laura or Heulwen with details of your address. Many thanks!
During the past couple of weeks a very special school has been opened in Arsal, Lebanon. This small school is dedicated to offering an education to 34 Syrian orphans aged between seven years and 14 years. Most of the children are illiterate having never had the opportunity to attend school. Thanks to six volunteers – three teachers, two admin staff and a cleaner, who are themselves displaced, The children will be taught Arabic, English, mathematics and computer studies. Currently the children attend the school for two days a week. During their stay they are also offered a chance to bathe and provided with a hot meal.
Winter jacket $14
Gloves $1
Hat and scarf $3
Blanket $10
Small toy or game $4.
All these items will be purchased in Lebanon, but as ever we can only achieve this mission together with your help. If you would please consider supporting this project by making a financial donation, we would be beyond grateful. Each pack will cost in the region of £25. We will of course be delighted with anything you feel able to donate. Please feel free to use the link pay.rrym.uk or contact me for details of the charities bank account.
To give you an idea of the children we are trying to help, I include an excerpt written by one of the teachers at the school: One of the 8-year-old boys told us his sad story about his miserable childhood in the camps of Arsal. Ali lost his father In the Syrian war. his mother remarried, leaving him and his little brother to live in their uncles house. There they were regularly beaten and abused by their uncle and his wife. One day he and his little brother decided to escape from the tent after their uncle promised to punish them when he and his wife returned from their outing. The boys fled to a nearby mountain in the village where they spent a terrifying night of fear hiding under a rock in the open air. I will never forget the sadness of betrayal and deprivation in the eyes of that child as he told us his story. I felt as though he was a man in his forties, not an innocent little child of only eight years.
Many thanks for taking the time to read this post. Let’s hope that together we can make things a little more bearable for Ali and other children who are in desperate need of support.
Hi Everyone, I finally have some fabulous news for those of you who so generously supported our library project for Kiangwali refugee resettlement camp in Uganda.
25 large boxes of donated books arrived at the library last Monday. Our librarian Anita, together with our friend Gideon, have been extremely busy registering and stamping the books before arranging them on the shelves. They haven’t quite finished the job as you will see from the pictures, and we still have another six boxes of books in transit, so this isn’t quite the end of the story.
but in the meantime I wanted to share the wonderful news with you, along with the pictures taken by Gideon.
I must admit there have been times when the size of this project and the logistics involved have seemed rather daunting for a tiny charity such as ours. A huge heartfelt thank you to every single one of you who has helped us get over the line, either by donating so many wonderful books or by making a financial donation towards shipping costs. You have helped us create the best stocked library for many a mile. This is another prime example of what can be achieved when a few like-minded people pull together.
We’re always on the lookout for mobile phones in good working order.
To lose your phone is to feel lost, disconnected and without information.
For those hundreds of thousands fleeing war, a smartphone can be a life line.
It’s a basic tool that means they can make a much needed call home. Access maps to find out where they are. Find information about what to do next, and what’s going on in the world.
A lot of the families and individuals coming to the refugee camps in Europe don’t have one. They’ve been lost, stolen or damaged on the way.
They can be any type of smart phones. For many refugees their phone is their only link with the Home and the family that they’ve left behind.
We’re constantly receiving requests for them.
So, if you wouldn’t mind checking your cupboards and drawers for surplus phones and chargers we’d be delighted to take them off your hands.
You can help
If you can’t find any mobile phones but would like to make a cash donation, we can use this to purchase refurbished phones at a reasonable price for those in greatest need.
