We are delighted to welcome Allan Murfet
to our team as Trustee and Treasurer.
Allen has visited Luxor
a number of times and is keen to assist Luxor4care move forward in it’s goals.
New Contacts
On her visit to Luxor
towards the end of 2008, Barbara Harrison was introduced to the manager of an
Egyptian Charity working on the West Bank of Luxor. This charity is
running a number of projects to help the local people including work projects
for men, health care education for women and nursery schools for children. They have other projects that they wish to
implement and we are discussing with them ways in which we may be able to
help.
We believe that it is probably more
effective for Luxor4care to work along side and assist local established
charities as they are the ones that are in a better position to clearly
identify the needs within the local communities and are able to administer the
help needed. Approximately 40kg of
childrens clothing, plus many pairs of shoes and a holdall full of art
equipment and stationary was left at their office for distribution on this
occasion.
Ma’at.
In January, we were delighted to welcome
back to Luxor Mike and Patricia from Ma’at Productions, Australia. They met with Omar Aamer, a West
Bank resident and active supporter of Luxor4care, who was able to
tell them about some of the needs being faced by families at this time. They kindly left a cash donation which was
immediately spent on purchasing basic food items for at least five families known
to have specific needs at that time. The
food was purchased at local stores and the shopkeepers kindly gave discount
knowing the reason for the purchase.
Blankets were also purchased for a family without. A bag of assorted soft toys brought over from
Australia
were also distributed. Each gift went
with the message ‘With Best Wishes from Friends in Australia’ and was gratefully
received.
The food
parcels contained basic food items including flour, rice, dried beans and
pulses, sugar, tea, cooking fat, and also some soap.
Goods taken to Luxor by our supporters.
We are grateful to all the supporters
who take items over to Luxor
in their suitcases. We are aware that it
is not always easy, especially with the reductions in baggage weight allowances
of many airlines. It is also becoming
increasing harder to get free excess baggage allowance on flights. Never the less, the items received are very
welcome and are usually passed on to Nour al Islam for their distribution
programme on the East Bank. Now we have
contacts on the West Bank too some items have
already been distributed to individual families there as well as that donated
to the Egyptian charity there.
We are also grateful to those who do not
visit Luxor but
continue to collect new and good quality used clothing for children and pass it
on to those who are able to take them out for them. One lady in the UK
has donated many hand knitted jumpers which have been a delight during the
colder winter months, something we often don’t think about as we shiver in our
homes expecting it to be always warm in Luxor.
Sometimes these contributions can seem
so small to us that we wonder if it’s really helping. They are not small things to those that
receive them however, but very welcome and needed gifts of kindness and love.
Thank
you to all who support in this and other ways.
Leaving Thebes - by Tim Cooper
As mentioned in our last
newsletter, Tim Cooper is donating proceeds from the sale of his book Leaving
Thebes to Luxor4care. We hear from Tim that
sales have been going well and he has sold his first print run. His book will now also be available for sale
from the Gaddis Bookshop in Luxor.
Membership of Luxor4care is free Please fill in a membership form and join us. Click Here
