Local officials, volunteers launch expanded effort to help Syrian refugees

Former Purcellville mayor Robert W. Lazaro and Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (center background, both in glasses) at a refugee camp in Turkey, handing out blankets collected last fall. (Courtesy of Northern Virginia Regional Commission)
Former Purcellville mayor Robert W. Lazaro and Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (center background, both in glasses) at a refugee camp in Turkey, handing out blankets collected last fall. (Courtesy of Northern Virginia Regional Commission)


Date posted: November 7, 2014

CAITLIN GIBSON

With winter fast approaching, officials and volunteers across Northern Virginia are mobilizing a second annual effort to help Syrian refugees by collecting donated blankets — this time, with a broader reach and a more ambitious goal.

Officials in Loudoun and Fairfax counties organized the first blanket drive last year, after several local politicians, including Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (R-At Large) and former Purcellville mayor Robert W. Lazaro, visited a refugee camp in Turkey and said that they were profoundly affected by what they saw: Thousands of Syrian refugees, many of them children, all crowded together in a sea of small tents.

As the weather grew cold, the refugees were in urgent need of blankets to keep warm, the officials were told. So they decided to launch a blanket drive with the help of volunteers and nonprofit groups, setting up about a dozen donation sites in Fairfax and Loudoun and ultimately collecting more than 18,000 blankets.

Since then, the number of Syrian refugees flooding across the border into Turkey has increased dramatically, with more than a million scattered across scores of refu­gee camps and border towns, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

“The need is there . . . and so we decided to go ahead and do another drive this year, similar to what we did last year, only with more time and the ability to get other jurisdictions involved,” York said. “Our goal is a significant increase over what we did last year.”

York said he’d like to see the drive collect 100,000 blankets this year.

“We are a region of over 2 million people,” York said, adding that if every household in Loudoun alone contributed one blanket, the goal would be exceeded. “So this goal is very doable within the entire region.”

More than 30 collection sites are set up across Northern Virginia, including drop-off locations in Prince William, Fairfax, Loudoun and Stafford counties, as well as Arlington County, Alexandria, Falls Church and Dumfries. The sites began accepting donations Saturday and will continue to do so through noon Nov. 22, officials said.

“People saw what we did last year and said, ‘Hey, we want to help,’ ” Lazaro said. “We’re very fortunate to have people understand that the need is even greater now.”

The local effort has also expanded to include hundreds of volunteers from many community organizations and religious groups across the region, he said.

Lazaro and York, along with Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton, Prince William County Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles) and Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille (D), first visited the camp in Adana, about 120 miles from the Syrian border, during an October 2013 cultural-exchange trip to Turkey. The officials were guests of the American Turkish Friendship Association, a Fairfax-based nonprofit organization that aims to bolster ties between the two countries.

Lazaro and York returned to Turkey this year to help distribute the blankets that were collected last fall. Lazaro said he would not soon forget the experience.

“You come from a place like Northern Virginia into this camp, and you’re so moved,” he said. “All the stories of all the people that you meet, they’re just heart-wrenching.”

Lazaro said he was particularly touched by a conversation with a displaced policeman, who was sharing a 10-square-foot tent with his wife and four children after the family was forced to flee their home — leaving their eldest daughter behind.

She wasn’t home when they had to leave, Lazaro said, and they didn’t have time to find her.

“Now you have these people all over the community, living under bridges, with multiple families in apartments, in makeshift housing, anywhere they can stay warm,” Lazaro said. “And there’s an overwhelming number of children.”

After the Nov. 22 deadline, the collected blankets will be shipped to Turkey, where they will be distributed to refugees in the camp and the broader community by nongovernmental aid organizations, Lazaro said.

In the dire circumstances faced by many refugees, Lazaro said, a blanket might not seem like much, but with no imminent resolution to the ongoing violence and turmoil, even the most fundamental assistance matters.

“What these people really want, frankly, is just to go home,” Lazaro said. “They just want to go back to their families and their lives. And in many respects, there is nothing left . . . but you do what you can.”

New and gently used blankets, cleaned and folded, will be collected at sites across Northern Virginia through Nov. 22. Information about the blanket drive is at www.helpsyrianrefugees.us


 

Caitlin Gibson covers Loudoun County for The Washington Post.

Source: The Washington Post , November 5, 2014


Related News

Charity Kimse Yok Mu to conduct 30,000 cataract surgeries

The charity organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) is planning to carry out 30,000 cataract surgeries in Africa and Asia in 2015.

Kimse Yok Mu delivers humanitarian assistance to Yazidis, Turkmens

Kimse Yok Mu, one of the largest charity organizations in Turkey, has sent humanitarian assistance worth nearly TL 2 million collected by volunteers to help Turkmens and Yazidis escaping Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces in Iraq.

Kimse Yok Mu continues to help needy despite gov’t restrictions

Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There?) is still extending a helping hand to those in need, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, despite restrictions imposed by the government on the organization’s ability to campaign for donations.

Art exhibition tells story of deficiency

Housed inside the building of APCO Worldwide, an independent communications consultancy firm, the art exhibition consists of 19 photographs taken by volunteers who participated in Kimse Yok Mu initiatives around the world, including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and Sudan. The exhibition will be open until Feb. 16.

Donate your qurban, bring joy to families in need

USA-based Embrace Relief Organization is organizing an Eid Al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) campaign to distribute your “livestock donations” to the needy across the globe. Embrace has been organizing this campaign every year for many year.

UN and Turkish charity provide 17,000 Syrian refugees with financial aid

Up to 17,000 Syrian refugees living in difficult conditions, some of them begging on the streets, outside of camps established in Turkey for Syrians will be able to benefit for two months from the project Kimse Yok Mu is conducting in cooperation with the UNHCR.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Turkish parents worried about gov’t plan to shut down study centers

Hizmet turns theories of Millennium Development Goals into practice

Turkey just snatched six of its citizens from another country

Tajik-Turkish Schools excel in Science Olympiads

Imam who lives in rural Pennsylvania arouses praise, concerns

Daily: Gov’t, watchdog attempted to sink Bank Asya

US, Turkish charities hold blanket drive

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News