Italian town brings joy, gifts to children of Darfur on eve of holiday
September 29, 2008 (EL FASHER) — More than five-hundred students from several schools in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and nearby Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps received gifts donated by people and UN Staff in the Italian city of Brindisi, on the eve of Eid El-Fitr, the Muslim celebration ending the holy month of Ramadan
The Italian town sent the gifts to UNAMID, the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, for distribution.
Secondary school children located in the IDP camps of Aboushouk and El Salam in North Darfur received clothes, shoes, toys, books, pens and pencils. Donations also reached members of the Handicapped Association who were pleased to receive books and clothes.
Mohammed Yousef Mohammed, the Director of the Darfur Handicapped Center, said he was very happy to receive humanitarian aid from the people of Brindisi. “This demonstrates the feeling of our brothers in Brindisi, how they feel for us, the handicapped or disabled people in Darfur,” he exclaimed.
The Darfur Handicapped Center has about 1,167 members who suffer as a result of the armed conflict, traffic accidents and polio.
“I am very happy because this is the very first time that we have received donations from UNAMID and Eid is coming so we are very grateful for this and are thanking a lot of people for sharing their wealth,” said one of the recipients at the Handicapped Association Center, 29-year old Ms. Nejaha Abdel Abshahar.
Brindisi hosts the United Nations Logistics Base, a centre that supports all UN peacekeeping missions worldwide. The base and the large presence of UN staff have led residents of Brindisi to establish a yearly tradition of collecting donations for children in zones affected by conflicts or disasters. The base’s staff collect donations from the people of this southern Italian city and from their UN colleagues in Brindisi.
In previous years, similar donations by the people of Brindisi and UN staff were sent to the children of Burundi, Pakistan, Lebanon and Liberia.
(ST)