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THE DHL Express team arrived at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club to collect the contents of four huge containers full of essential supplies donated by kind-hearted GulfWeekly readers to help refugee families who have escaped from the Syrian bloodshed.
Many have arrived with just the clothes on their backs and are sheltering from the elements in makeshift accommodation in neighbouring countries.
Our readers were urged to once more open their hearts and lend the needy a helping hand throughout Ramadan by backing the month-long campaign to make a difference to the lives of Syrian refugees.
Your campaigning community newspaper linked up with logistics company DHL Express, in partnership with Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) and St Christopher’s School, to collect and deliver clothing to men, women, teenagers and toddlers as well as useful items to help children with their school work inside the camps where they have found sanctuary.
Readers rallied to the call and filled boxes with clothes placed at the rugby club in Janabiya and filled packages with pens, pencils, notepads, alongside drawing and colouring books. Children also added hand-written letters of love and support.
GulfWeekly Editor Stan Szecowka said: “Our readers are amazing. Thank you for supporting our first international endeavour and touching the lives of people in desperate need of our help and support.”
Supporters were heartened to hear the short but sweet message from Alvin Distura, of the Support Desk, DHL Express Iraq & Afganistan, who reported: “The relief goods have been successfully collected from BRFC.”
His colleagues will carefully check through each item, ensure the bundles are placed into labelled sections for men, women and children and will shortly organise a delivery flight to the region and hand-deliver the donated items to displaced refugee families.
Many have sought sanctuary in neighbouring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Around the world, millions have been displaced by conflict and persecution. Nearly 20 million of them are refugees, and more than half are children.
Our combined efforts may only scratch the surface of this heart-aching ordeal but António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, believes every donation, however small, helps in such dire circumstances. “These people rely on us for their survival and hope. They will remember what we do,” he said.
