IndieG

I came across this appeal for help in another website - so thought would help publicise the good work being done by this lady - Elle. If you are interested in contributing, here is some information:

Quote

I know you are all aware of the horrendous accidents involving labourers, reported recently in the media. I am pleased to tell you we have direct contact now with sources who will enable us to deliver donated food/clothing/shoes items etc., to the men.

When my husband & I began visiting the camps, originally because we had heard that the men were continually paid late, and were forced to use their local cold store & purchase food from them to sustain themselves. When they got paid it went mainly to the cold store. It was our intention to give the men a food pack to last them a month, in order for them to beable to break their cycle of debt. After a while it became obvious we could not sustain the effort by ourselves. We simply could not cope with the demand, and we were right. The momentum is building and we can use all of the help you can give us. I have enclosed the lists for you. We never give money, but we give to everyone, irrespective of their religon or nationality. Infact, anyone who presents on the night we visit the camp, we have been able to give them food & care packs.

One night when we went to one of the camps, the men came out to the back of our car to receive their food packs, we noticed they were all dressed in summer clothes and shivering, it was 13C so we decided to go buy sweaters, thick blankets, thinner blankets to use as shawls & woolly hats, the next night we delivered those things and the mens eyes lit up again, just the way they did when we handed them the food stuffs. Believe me, the look in their eyes is always priceless.

It is wonderful to know there are so many of you willing to reach out & touch complete strangers lives and help lift their spirits and ease their burdens.

This is the list for the food packs, we found out exactly what the men really needed, hoping this would send the message to them, that we really cared about them.

The food packages are for mainly Philipino men.....their staple food is rice, so we had to get the type they would enjoy. In case of other Asians, substitute Basmati rice as they prefer that variety. This list is per person.

Food Packs:

5 kilo's Thai or Jasmin rice, I bought loose Thai rice from Carrefour
Canned fish, mixed Tuna, mackerel, sardines
50 tea bag box
Noodles 5x5 chicken & beef flavor
500gms or 1 kilo of sugar
1 bottle Soy Sauce Blue Dragon
5 sm. cans tomato paste
1 litre of corn oil cooking oil
10 sm. cans of Rainbow milk / or Nido
Packet or tin of sweet and salty biscuits
small cartons/tins of juice
Bag of nuts
Bag of candy

We tried to keep the packs identical for obvious reasons.

Care packs, again the list below is for an individual person.

1 blanket, thick Spanish type.
1 pillow + pillow slip
1 single sheet
towel
1 pkt Razors
soap (Lifebuoy)
deodorant
tooth brush/tooth paste
nail clippers
pen
paper
bag of mixed nuts
bag of candy
salty/sweet biscuits
6 Rainbow milk
50 tea bags
500gms sugar

I ask Carrefour for some extra plastic bags, and I just put everything inside, I wanted to find some plastic boxes with tight fitting lids, to keep the bugs/dirt out, but I haven't had time to go look for them. Perhaps some of you would have time to track down the plastic boxes for the rice and sugar etc.

In addition to the above, I also purchased woolly sweaters from Carrefour for 10 AED per item & woolly hats from Union Co-operative for 3.95 AED per item.

We have also received donations of clean clothing from individuals for these men, and they need and use absolutely anything, and everything. So when you are clearing out your closets, please remember not to throw anything away, it will bea treasure to someone else.

If you wished to add a 25 AED phone card to the packs, I know it would be greatly appreciated by the men.

Please excuse me for taking up so much of you time with this
l-o-n-g thread, but so many of you want this information.

If you have any question you would like me to answer, please e.mail me: [email protected]

The spirit of pulling together for a common cause feels great, I hope you are all feeling it too.

Thank you all for your co operation

Unquote

Rumble Tumble

There is also a collection going on at these points:

Every little bit helps.

Friday 26th: ~ 08:00 to 11:00 at Mall of the Emirates. Outside MMI.

Saturday 27th: ~ 09.00 to 11.00 at Silcon Oasis at Ruby's. (the restaurant)

Saturday 27th: ~ 08:00 to 10:00 at Lime Tree Cafe Car Park, Beach Road.

Sunday 28th: ~ 08:00 to 10:00 at Shakespeare's at Park & Shop.

Monday 29th: ~ 08:00 to 10:00 at Meadows Village. Costa Coffee.

Tuesday 30th: ~ 10:30 to 12:30 at Arabian Ranches Costa Coffee .

Wednesday 31st: ~ 08:00 to 10:00 at Town Centre (Spinneys) Mirdiff.

Thursday 1st: ~ 08:00 to 10.00 at Ibn Battuta Geant end, upper level carpark.

On either Friday or Saturday all boxes will be delivered to a central location for distrubtion.

Mrs_Twanky

Reminds me of Mr. Cash...

You load 16 tonnes and what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store (cue bass guitar)

A sad but very old story. If I do move back to the UAE then I would like to learn more about how I can help..

T

TA5

Let me get this right...the residents of the UAE are being asked to pay for food and clothing for people who work, directly or indirectly, for one of the richest government families in the ME?

Just wanted to clarify.

NorthernLad

It's called charity. Like when people helped out New Orleans residents after Katrina.

Does anyone know where the central collection point is...we're out of UAE until Thursday?

Jammy_Dodgers

Charity Begins at home TA5......

"Starbucks forced rescue workers in New York to pay a Starbucks shop $130 for water to treat victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack. "


"Shortly after the Sept. 11 attack, rescue workers rushed into a nearby Starbucks store to get water to treat shock victims. Ambulance company workers said employees in the shop demanded they pay $130 for three cases of bottled water. The workers paid cash, out of their own pockets."





http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,35198,00.html

TA5

You've used a natural disaster and a terrorist attack as your examples.

These are voluntary employees of gov't controlled entities.

Was there an earthquake in a labor camp that I missed or something.

There is a massive difference here.

Jammy_Dodgers

Either way, it's people in need of assistance.

Mrs_Twanky

I think that Charity is about volinteering your time or resources for the purpose of alleviating other people's suffering. The fact that this suffering is man-made is almost irrelevant.

If what you are saying is that in the case of UAE labourours there is a party to blame and the party should short out their own mess then this is fine in principle. In practice however, these people need material help, they do not need to be told who is at fault (or worse that they should not have signed-up in the first place).

Finally the work is not entirley voluntary. Many labourours become indentured to a system that traps them. If you think these guys can just up and go home you are mistaken. Imagine if you had arrived in the UAE, had you passport "held" by your employer, and not paid and you owe an inflated amount for your trip over. Kinda sucks huh?

T

secretdubai

Yes. But hopefully, if we can get this story out, it will cause them some shame, which may accelerate their supposed improvement of the labourers' plight.

TA5

That's what i'm getting at. Instead of massive protests or non-laborer boycotts or strikes, people are being encouraged to subsidize the UAE construction industry.

Instead of this, why not stop buying properties built with slave labor? Why not put the money towards suing the UAE government or putting a massive pr campaign to expose the labourers plight worldwide.

Sending care packages to a small percentage of laborers is like cleaning up water from a steadily leaking pipe instead of actually fixing the pipe.

NorthernLad

Not a massive difference - in all cases, the people affected need help.

And it seems you have managed to get us to into a debate which would be better suited to a different thread.

Still find it hard to understand why you moved back home and still try to stir things up here.

IndieG

You CANNOT sue the UAE govt - it's against the constituiton.

Hopefully this 'movement' will draw attention to their plight, but more importantly provide them with some immediate relief.

Mrs_Twanky

Hey NorthernLad. In what context is "northern"? Does it mean you are from the "Dirty old town" part of the UK or is the context more local, indicating that you are from, say R.A.K.?

MJC

He (and I) are both Geordies.

We don't like to mention the smoggy that's on this board don't we not LJ!!!