Rilek1Corner

Tag: refugee

  • Gilbert Goh: Global Charitable Organisations Deserve Support

    Gilbert Goh: Global Charitable Organisations Deserve Support

    Supported the emboidery work of this handicapped Palestinian refugee woman at Musawat Saida.

    The Palestinians are great with their hand-sewn emboidery work and its a pity there is a lack of marketing effort to sell them abroad.

    The refugee emboidery market is a great money-churning goldmine that remains very much untapped and we are trying our best to assist in this area.

    Moreover, for the refugees themselves, its great to earn one’s keep than sitting at home and wait for handout. The emboidery sewing can also be done at home with minimal interruption to their household chores as most refugee women also tend to look after the children themselves.

    The wealthy international charitable bodies these days are stretched to the limits with their funding resources and many local NGOs suffer from this reduction in funds.

    The idea of a social enterprise model whereby NGOs self-fund themselves from selling their own hand-made products takes more eminence now.

    However, its still difficult to change the mindset of NGOs here as they are used to easy access to funds contributed from the European charitable organisations.

    But such days are truly numbered…and my fear is that some noble charitable organisations may need to close down soon due to a lack of funds.

     

    Source: Gilbert Goh

  • Gilbert Goh: Thank You Singaporeans For Contributing To Betterment Of Child Refugees In Lebanon

    Gilbert Goh: Thank You Singaporeans For Contributing To Betterment Of Child Refugees In Lebanon

    Had a very interesting time spending half a day interacting with the refugee children at Shatila camp Beirut yesterday.

    They appear happy and contented when classes resume after a one-week Haji break. The classes are managed by the Palestinian NGO based in Beirut – National Institution of Social Care & Vocational Training.

    You can look through their activities at www.socialcare.org.

    I remember my parents took me out of a kindargarten permanently as we were very poor and couldn’t afford the school fees then. I would walk past the school regularly and peep inside marvelling at those who are so priviledged to attend the classes.

    The kids spend 6 years here in a refugee childcare facility before moving on to the government schools.

    Its the only fun time kids have before they return home to their shoddy apartment. Some are orphans and will return to the orphanage.

    The school hours are from 8am to 1pm and most kids are Palestinian refugees with some coming from Syrians and others.

    Its a priviledge knowing the kids and they appear strong in the face of adversity. Kudos also to the teachers who show dedication and commitment in their line of duty.

    Most of the teachers are refugees themselves.

    Sometimes you find tears rolling down your cheek unknowingly when you move around the centre – its that emotional.

    It only takes USD $150 to sponsor a refugee child per annum to ensure that he has a decent pre school education before he ventures into the government school. We have so far collected close to $3000.

    We are targetting 100 children and it can be a one-off thing.

    Let us try to make a small Singaporean dent in this part of the war-torn world…

    ***

    Visited another kindargarten centre at Bourj AlBarajneh Beirut today.

    childcare-in-lebanon

    Its a 2-storey building full of kids from age 3 to 6 years old.

    Some just enter the nursery yesterday for the new school term and are abit bewildered.

    I am glad to catch them before they leave at 1pm.

    Both the centres I visited yesterday and today will be funded by the many Good Samaritans who donated to the refugee cause.

    The school also requested for gas heater as winter is approaching and it can be quite cold at 15 deg average. We went around sourcing and will try our level best to donate a few sets to the centre soon.

    Each gas heater costs around USD $100 to $120.

    Thanks alot Singaporeans as we have made our little significant mark here in Beirut Lebanon.

    We may be a small country but we have a big heart!

     

     

    Source: Gilbert Goh

     

  • Nearly $100,000 Raised After Photo Of Refugee Dad Selling Pens Goes Viral

    Nearly $100,000 Raised After Photo Of Refugee Dad Selling Pens Goes Viral

    BEIRUT (REUTERS) – An online fund-raiser has raised more than US$67,800 (S$95,000) for a refugee from Syria and his daughter after a campaigner based in Norway shared moving pictures on social media of the man selling pens in the streets of Beirut.

    Gissur Simonarson, founder of Conflict News, posted the pictures on Tuesday and was flooded with requests to help the man, a Palestinian from the devastated Yarmouk refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus.

    The pictures showed Abdul Haleem al-Kader, a single father of two, holding up pens on a roadside in Lebanon’s capital, his four-year-old daughter Reem asleep on his shoulder, according to Simonarson’s funding page.

    A subsequent online campaign, which had initially aimed to raise US$5,000, collected as much as US$67,800 in 24 hours according to the page.

    “It’s nice to see people come together and make a difference in another person’s life,” Simonarson wrote.

    Lebanon is home to well over one million refugees from Syria’s war next door and such scenes are common in Beirut.

    Young refugee children sell flowers, packs of tissues or offer to shine shoes for a small sum.

    According to Buzzfeed News, Kader first left Syria four years ago with his wife and two children, moving to live in Egypt. His wife insisted they return to Syria, then left Kader and the children when he refused.

    “I had nothing to do in Syria anymore, since the chocolate factory that I used to work in before is closed,” he told BuzzFeed in a phone interview.

    “Some of my friends told me, ‘Why not go to Lebanon and try there.’”

    Though he was looking to work in a chocolate factory in Lebanon as well, none were hiring.

    “So I have no other options to feed my kids but selling stuff in the streets.”

    Simonarson told Buzzfeed he knew his photos would draw a response.

    “I talked to the guy I got the photo from, but he wasn’t the original photographer,” Simonarson said.

    “We haven’t been able to find the original person who took the photos yet.”

    “Conflict News has pretty good reach – I thought i might be able to locate him,” Simonarson said.

    So he set up the Twitter handle @Buy_Pens, urging @conflict’s 64,000 followers to aid in the search.

    After an initial false start, two Twitter followers managed to locate Kader based on the retweets of the original photo.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • HOME: Ihumane To Turn Away Refugee Boats

    HOME: Ihumane To Turn Away Refugee Boats

    By Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME)

    Singapore should demonstrate leadership to the humanitarian crisis that is happening with the Rohingyas, who have been victims of systemic persecution, discrimination and rampant abuse. We also urge the Myanmar government to stop persecuting them to prevent the mass exodus of asylum seekers.

    Even though Singapore did not ratify the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, under international law the Singapore government has to adhere to the principle of “non-refoulement” – not to expel anyone back to places where they may experience persecution.

    The crisis involving the Rohingyas is one that has to be resolved by ASEAN and not one country alone. But for Singapore to say that it is not in a position to accept refugees goes against the values of cooperation and humanitarianism and we urge the government to re-consider its decision.

    Singapore need not accept and re-settle all who seek political asylum. It can work with other ASEAN governments and civil society, both locally and abroad, to ensure that the asylum seekers have temporary housing, food and medical attention while their cases are processed by the the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The solution should not be to turn these boats away as the Singapore government did in 2012 when it refused entry to 40 stranded asylum seekers after their vessel sank off the coast of Myanmar on December 5 and sought to dock in Singapore waters.

    An ASEAN inter-agency framework for action should be established and all countries should work together to resolve this crisis in a sustainable way. But even as this framework is being put in place, rather than abandoning them to their deaths, Singapore should do its part and provide them with protection.

    This statement has the support of the following individuals:

    Lynn Lee, Terry Xu, Jennifer Teo, Rachel Zeng, Joshua Chiang, Shelley Thio, Roy Ngerng,

     

    Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com