Saturday, April 23, 2011

Nottingham charity manager recalls visit to Libya

TARIQ Nasir, senior projects manager at Nottingham charity Muslim Hands, has recently visited eastern Libya.

"We arrived in Benghazi on the morning of March 26 and found the city quiet and almost desolate," he said.

"The telephone systems were down, we were only able to make calls from mobile phones to people within Benghazi. There was no internet or international calls facilities.

"We were informed that Ajdabiya, a city 160km south of Benghazi, was in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. The city had changed hands several times between the rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in the last few days.

"We travelled for two hours to reach Ajdabiya. The highway linking the two cities showed signs of heavy shelling and fierce fighting. Many rocket launchers, tanks and military equipment had been destroyed and were scattered along the road.

"Ajdabiya was a ghost town. We drove around the city and found homes damaged from artillery fire. Very few residents were on the streets. The shops were closed and the Masjids empty.

"We bought food and other items, loaded them onto trucks and went to Ajdabiya Boys' Scouts headquarters for distribution. The news of our arrival had travelled fast and there was a long queue outside the Scouts office. With the help of the Scouts, we quickly organised the food into packages for each family.

"The scouts were extremely respectful and treated all people, some of whom were very agitated and angry, with dignity. We were able to provide food parcels for about 1,000 families."



Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503354/s/1461a69e/l/0L0Sthisisnottingham0O0Cnews0CNottingham0Echarity0Emanager0Erecalls0Evisit0ELibya0Carticle0E3480A9380Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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