E M E R G E N C Y CRISIS IN KOSOVO

THE SCOUT ASSOCIATION SUPPORT

"Helping to Make a Difference"

Each Field Commissioner, Northern Ireland and Scottish Headquarters were asked to contact Counties and Areas inviting them to establish regional drop-in centres for clothing and blankets for the Kosovo refugees.

All the arrangements were undertaken at very short notice, mainly over the Bank Holiday period when many local contacts were simply not contactable. Despite this and as a result of a lot of hard work nearly 100 locations were identified.

What happened in Belfast:-

Once word of the appeal reached Belfast, the Leaders of East swung into action. At very short notice, McMordie Scout Hall, 10th Group HQ, was commandeered as our collection point, flyers were designed and distributed around several hundred shops in Belfast, and interviews were given to local media to publicise the appeal. What followed next was truly overwhelming. Thanks to the generosity of the people of our city, McMordie Hall was soon filled to overflowing and bursting at the seams with blankets and clothing. Our merry little band of volunteers was hard pressed to get it all sorted and bagged as more and more items arrived all the time. Even when we moved some of this down to the larger collection point at NISC Crawfordsburn, more kept coming and a constant stream of visitors to Oakland Avenue encouraged us to extend our opening hours so that the Hall was manned 12 hours on each day of the appeal.

How did we manage then to shift everything donated from East Belfast out to Kosovo?

To say that the onward transfer of the collected items from the 10th Hall on Monday 12th did not run entirely smoothly is something of an understatement! The original hauliers were unable to cope with the sheer volume of clothing and blankets so generously donated by the people of Northern Ireland. We are indebted to Kevin McParland from Tilemarket for giving up his half-day annual leave to drive a large container lorry supplied by his company in response to our appeal on the radio on Monday morning, and to all those who helped to pack the lorry and to unload it again upon arrival at the temporary holding facility in Antrim, near the International Airport, especially the Nobles (111th) and our friends in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Holywood Road). Thanks too to Sinclair and Terry for their help in trying to resolve the situation and to Violet and Anne who bore the burden of manning the telephones that rang incessantly at HQ and Oakland Avenue, respectively, throughout the day! We are relieved to be able to report that the clothing and blankets have now been successfully transported to the Macedonia/Kosovo region for distribution to the refugees by the army and UNICEF.

Let’s hope that in some small way by fulfilling our Scout promise to ‘help other people’ we have been able to make a real difference for some of the refugees in their desperate plight. Those of us who were actively involved in organising the collection have been greatly distressed by the harrowing scenes from Kosovo on nightly news bulletins and were deeply touched by the sheer enormity of the response from the general public, and from those both within and outside the Scout Movement who helped us in so many practical ways in our response to the Kosovo appeal.

A word of thanks:-

Sincere thanks is due to everyone in East who rallied round at such short notice to organise the local effort associated with the nation-wide Scout Association Kosovo Refugees Appeal during the Easter Holiday period. Thanks are due in particular to Janet Corry (ABSL, 10th) who designed the posters, to all our members who helped to distribute posters and flyers, manned the collection point on 10th and 11th April and helped pack the clothes and blankets for collection. Thanks also to the local Churches and shops for their support, and to Ian Diamond (GSL) and all at the 10th Group for so willingly agreeing to make the McMordie Hall available as the regional collection point for Greater Belfast.