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MORE essential supplies of clothing have arrived at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club this week in support of the GulfWeekly & DHL Express Ramadan Appeal 2015 … and it could not have come at a more vital time for beleaguered Syrian families fleeing the conflict in their home country.
The World Food Programme, running short of cash, will halve the value of food vouchers given to Syrian refugees in Lebanon this month and may cut all help for 440,000 Syrians in Jordan next month, the UN agency has revealed.
“Just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, we are forced yet again to make yet more cuts,” Muhannad Hadi, WFP’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, said in a statement. “Refugees were already struggling to cope with what little we could provide.”
United Nations aid agencies said last week that a $4.5 billion appeal to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was less than a quarter funded, putting millions of vulnerable people at risk, and had already led to cuts in vital assistance.
The shortfall has meant 1.6 million refugees have had food assistance cut this year and 750,000 children are not attending school, the agencies and partner organisations said.
With so little money to spend on food there is unlikely to be any left to buy clothes.
WFP said Syrian refugees in Lebanon would now get $13.50 to spend on food in the month of July. The organisation needs $139 million to keep helping almost four million Syrian refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey until September.
Syria’s conflict is now in its fifth year and has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced around half of the population. UN aid agencies have described it as one of the worst refugee crises since World War Two. The UN predicts there will be 4.27 million Syrian refugees in the region by the end of 2015.
As reported last week, the generosity of people in Bahrain has touched the hearts of the organisers of the GulfWeekly & DHL Express Ramadan Appeal 2015 as a steady stream of shirts, shorts, jumpers, underwear, socks and footwear has arrived at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club to fill up special containers.
BRFC chairman Mehdi Honar hand-delivered his family’s donations over the weekend. “We’re delighted to play a small part in this worthy campaign – it’s amazing how people in the community have rallied round to support the initiative. It’s brilliant.”
The businessman is well known for his charitable endeavours as he is also the Scottish Cancer Crusaders’ club president and chairman of the recently-formed Bahrain Cancer Warriors.
The Crusaders are a unique team made up of players that have either had cancer themselves or had close family or friends that have been stricken down by the disease. Their aim is to encourage all men to ‘front up’ to cancer. The Warriors are spreading the message on the local front.
Before term ended pupils at St Christopher’s School Kindness Club filled small boxes full of useful items to help children continue their education in refugee camps and their efforts have inspired other youngsters to get in on the act.
DHL Express will deliver the donated items to refugee families at the end of Ramadan where the desperate, displaced people of Syria have gathered.
Readers are being urged to continue filling large containers with men’s, women’s and children’s clothes and school equipment placed along the corridor leading to the indoor sports hall located inside the rugby club in Janabiya.
Donations can be dropped off at the club’s reception.
