Newsletter June 2007

By our Chairman Morag Brand

This newsletter begins with the wonderful news that Luxor4Care is now officially a charity! On 12th June we received notification from the UK Charity Commission advising us that our Registered No. is 1119618.

At the beginning of June I visited Medamud with volunteers from the Nour al Islam project. Medamud is a small village on the outskirts of Luxor and is home to some of the city's poorest people. The purpose of our visit was to distribute summer clothing and food parcels. We had an amazing reception; as soon as we drove into the village we were met by a group of children coming to welcome us. Every house we visited we were invited to drink tea and catch up with the family's news.

Nour al Islam offers an outreach service to widowed women struggling to raise their children alone. It also offers assistance to families whose main breadwinner cannot work due to illness or injury.

These people live in conditions that have to be seen to be believed. The houses are made up of two rooms; a main room which is used as a reception room during the day and a bedroom at night. The only furniture is a bare bench which doubles up as a bed for the head of the house, while the rest of the family sleep on the bare compacted earth floor. The other room in the house is a very basic kitchen - you won't find a washing machine or electrical equipment here. - the houses have neither running water nor electricity. The cooker is a single gas ring - similar to a camping stove. This is used to prepare the family's meals.

At present, Nour al Islam offers help to 250 orphans in and around Luxor. This is set to increase to 450 in the very near future when they will take on the work of another branch that is set to close. Luxor4Care is looking for additional ways to help and already has a number of sponsors for family food parcels. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, or a family through a monthly food parcel, please Click Here to complete an online form.

June also saw Luxor4Care team up with Easy Fundraising, offering our supporters an extra way to raise funds when shopping online. Over 400 stores are listed, including Boots, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Amazon and Debenhams to name but a few. Every time you shop online via Easy Fundraising, Luxor4Care will receive a donation of up to 15% from the retailer, at no extra cost to you! This is a free service and you can join up by visiting http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/luxor4care and registering. Every penny you raise will help us to help the children of Luxor.

More good news is that the first consignment of physiotherapy equipment is on its way to Luxor from the UK. These have been donated by a kind supporter and a generous benefactor has arranged for the shipment for us. These gifts will be donated to the therapy clinic in Seul.

At the beginning of this month we were contacted by a Tasmanian based Australian tour company called Ma'at Productions , a partnership between Dr Mike Jenkins (an internationally recognised Egyptologist) and Ms Patricia Kempa. They had seen the extensive article about us on the www.luxornews.net news blog run by Jane Akshar, a Luxor resident.

While Ma'at Productions provides a range of academic and educational activities, Mike and Patricia have recently focused on their extended tour (31 days!) of Egypt. Most of their participants are Australian, but all nationalities are welcome to join the tour. Features of their unique approach to touring Egypt include:

• small group numbers and lots of time to get to know the real Egypt, past and present;
• real focus on ethical tourism that uses local (not international) businesses, and gives participants opportunities to interact with local people and to contribute to the welfare of individual Egyptians;
• freedom to select itinerary activities on a day-to-day basis; and
• budget prices.

Ma'at Productions has started spreading the word of Luxor4Care's work in the Asia-Pacific region through their business contacts. They have become members of Luxor4Care, and are promoting our aims by including our poster in all their client packs and posting an extensive article about us on their website. To view the article Click Here

They are planning to bring their group to meet with us next January as part of the Luxor leg of their tour. For our part, we look forward to meeting them and explaining a little more about our activities.

Finally, on behalf of all the Trustees and children of Luxor, I would like to say a huge thank you to all our members for your support - we couldn't have come this far so quickly without you.