ANOTHER vanload of donations from local people set sail for Syria last week, where it will be taken to Otma refugee camp, which is home to around 120,000 people.
The donations were collected at the Canberra youth centre by the Al Bayan Education Foundation, a British charity giving aid to people in need around the world. This was the fifth van full of donations to have been taken since collections started in Melksham in September.
Miriam Zaccarelli has been overseeing the collection. “I’ve been really surprised and a bit overwhelmed by how much people in the area have donated,” she said. “Some have even gone out to buy new clothes for us to send; we had to stop collecting because we’ve run out of room for it all. It has been emotional – people’s generosity is beautiful but the fact that the situation is so bad that we need to do this, is horrible.
“A lot of time was spent sorting all the clothes into very specific categories so it can be taken to the right place as quickly as possible. Thank you to those who generously donated and to the volunteers who helped sort it all.”
The piles of boxes and bin bags were collected from the Canberra centre last Tuesday by Searahj Ghoma; a driver and fundraiser for the Al Bayan Foundation. Searahj, originally from Libya, who now lives in Birmingham where the charity is based.
He said, “We have sent 24 shipping containers of donations to Syria so far; this collection will go on our 25th container. There are communities coming together to donate like this across the country and it’s really important.
“The charity looks after around 15,000 to 20,000 people in the camp in Syria, and they’re dependent on donations like this. The Otma camp in northern Syria has about 120,000 people who have been forced out of their homes by the war and have nothing.
“I got involved after seeing what was happening on the news; I felt I had to do something. Since going to Syria the Al Bayan Foundation has also set up a bread factory, water wells and a primary school – they’re having to rebuild society there.”
Syria has been in the midst of a civil war for nearly five years. BBC figures say that during this time, 250,000 Syrians have died and 11million – over 20 times the population of Wiltshire – have been forced from their homes.
While millions have fled their homeland, 6.5million displaced people are thought to still be living in the war-torn country.
