In the far north of Syria, near the Balikh River that marks the border with Turkey, the small war-ravaged community of Ali Bajilyah relies on primary health care from an intrepid team of local medical staff funded by a British charity.
Five hundred kilometres away, the Hands Up Foundation also supports an inspiring teaching project in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, where 300 Syrian refugee children, many living in tent settlements, are taught basic literacy and numeracy skills to help them access formal education.
But what if the charity were forced to choose patients over pupils, or the other way around? It is precisely this impossible decision between potentially life-saving medical consultations and life-changing school lessons that the foundation fears it will soon have to make with its hard-pressed funds.
Most of the much-needed money for the programmes comes from the highlight of Hands Up's fundraising calendar – the annual Singing for Syrians Christmas concert held these past five years in St Margaret's Church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey.
Ordinarily by the beginning of December, 900 tickets would have been sold, £30,000 ($40,017) in sponsorship pledged and collection plates put out at the back of the church in readiness to receive perhaps £5,000 in good will.
In these pandemic times, however, uncertainty is crippling participation in the 2020 virtual event, with only 400 tickets sold so far for the carol service on Wednesday, in spite of a star-studded array of performers, including satirist Barry Humphries in Dame Edna guise, physician and poet Fouad M. Fouad, actress Helen McCrory, singer Katie Melua and author Michael Morpurgo.
According to George Butler, one of the four British founders of the Hands Up Foundation, there is a myth that Londoners tell each other about Covid hitting everybody equally. “But that’s not true,” Mr Butler says. “The financially poor are the worst off and those relying on others, especially those across borders in Syria, have been hugely affected.
“Where we are operating in northern Syria, there is hardly a single case of Covid because no one is allowed in or out but the effects of Covid on delivering aid there are huge. That’s the message we are trying to get across: we are not going to a virtual event because we think it’s better than a physical one, we are doing it because our hand has really been forced.
“If we don’t do that, we have to make a difficult decision between cutting doctors’ salaries – 20 doctors, 20 medical staff that we paid for during the last four years – or we have to choose between 300 kids, and that’s a very real choice.”
In some ways, it is a really good opportunity to see how else we can raise funds and how else we can sustain different income streams, but it has been a huge challenge
The charitable foundation, which aims to empower Syrian communities by giving people “a hand up, not a handout”, began in 2012 as a supper club organised by Mr Butler and three friends. Inspired by time they had spent in Damascus, they set out to raise money and awareness for those they had left behind.
Since then, Hands Up’s CEO Rose Lukas says they have joined forces with other charities including the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and SAWA for Development and Aid in channelling £4 million through partner organisations on the ground “who know the needs and the context of those communities better than anyone”.
The driving principle, Ms Lukas said, was to give people a livelihood to support themselves and their families so that they, in turn, could provide vital services to their local communities.
The Hands Up Foundation had hoped at the start of the year to raise another £100,000 from the Singing for Syrians event this week, but that was before the coronavirus came along. Ms Lukas says that the impact of the pandemic goes far beyond those who have been infected by Covid-19, noting that the most vulnerable always pay the greatest price.
“In some ways, it is a really good opportunity to see how else we can raise funds and how else we can sustain different income streams, but it has been a huge challenge,” she said.
“I think it’s really hard to predict, but if we don’t raise enough this year we would have to consider cutting some of the funds that we send to the primary health clinic or the school in the next year.”
Covid-affected revenue streams
She says that the response from donors has been galvanising when the charity frames the situation in the stark wording of “these are the options – you will have to choose”. But while the Hands Up Foundation considers itself lucky to have steadfast financial supporters, Ms Lukas concedes that there is always a limit to largesse.
“Particularly with philanthropists,” she said, “if their income is being hit by Covid or a global recession, they will simply have fewer funds available for humanitarian settings.
“In general, they would like to keep supporting to some degree … whether they can do it to the same extent is another question.”
The school is currently closed in line with government guidance on Covid-19 for educational institutions, making pupils’ needs all the more desperate when the project opens its doors again.
For its part, the medical team running the primary health clinic has endured hardships other than coronavirus that have brought a halt to the average of 3,000 consultations a month carried out by staff free of charge.
They have been bombed three times, on each occasion impressing Hands Up’s co-founders with their bravery and resilience in getting back up and running again within 10 days.
Dr Yahya Alrahal, a pathologist with SAMS, says that it is one of the rare clinics with support in the deserted area, where there is a lack of infrastructure, electricity and water, let alone medical supplies, equipment and health workers. The nearest alternative centre, Dr Alrahal says, is 20 kilometres away in Tel Abyad city, a distance that many people can’t traverse given the unavailability of public transport.
“The centre basically provides hope for many families that rely on its services, and an opportunity for the few health workers in the area to be supported to remain while making them useful to their communities and preserving local resilience,” he said.
Putting the pandemic into global perspective
Michael Morpurgo, who has spoken in the past about being deeply affected by seeing images of the body of the three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015, will perform a reading for the Singing for Syrians event.
The plight of such migrants prompts Mr Morpurgo to point out that the pandemic may have been fearsome and overwhelming for those in Britain, but the people of Syria have faced much worse for years.
“No one is bombing us, invading us, destroying our homes, killing friends and family in front of our eyes, driving us out of our country to exist as refugees, where we are crowded together in vast camps enduring unbelievable hardship, and now the pandemic, too, which threatens to spread through the camps like wildfire,” he says.
“We often use the phrase ‘Lest we forget’ when we are remembering the suffering of those from our country who suffered and died in our wars. Let’s do that for the people of Syria, too. In our time of trouble, let’s not forget them.”
*The Hands Up Foundation is also raising money this week via The Big Give Christmas Campaign in which philanthropists match pound for pound donations made between December 1 and 8.
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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
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MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
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Takreem Awards winners 2021
Corporate Leadership: Carl Bistany (Lebanon)
Cultural Excellence: Hoor Al Qasimi (UAE)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Bkerzay (Lebanon)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Raya Ani (Iraq)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Women’s Programs Association (Lebanon)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Osamah Al Thini (Libya)
Excellence in Education: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) (Qatar)
Outstanding Arab Woman: Balghis Badri (Sudan)
Scientific and Technological Achievement: Mohamed Slim Alouini (KSA)
Young Entrepreneur: Omar Itani (Lebanon)
Lifetime Achievement: Suad Al Amiry (Palestine)
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Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Colomba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe
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Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
Ms Danial is a finance coach and former currency analyst who writes for Nasdaq. Her broad-strokes primer (2019) breaks down investing in cryptocurrency into baby steps, while explaining the terms and technologies involved.
Although cryptocurrencies are a fast evolving world, this book offers a good insight into the game as well as providing some basic tips, strategies and warning signs.
Begin your cryptocurrency journey here.
Available at Magrudy’s , Dh104
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
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Traits of Chinese zodiac animals
Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final (first-leg score):
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Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
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11 cabbie-recommended restaurants and dishes to try in Abu Dhabi
Iqbal Restaurant behind Wendy’s on Hamdan Street for the chicken karahi (Dh14)
Pathemari in Navy Gate for prawn biryani (from Dh12 to Dh35)
Abu Al Nasar near Abu Dhabi Mall, for biryani (from Dh12 to Dh20)
Bonna Annee at Navy Gate for Ethiopian food (the Bonna Annee special costs Dh42 and comes with a mix of six house stews – key wet, minchet abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs fir fir and shiro).
Al Habasha in Tanker Mai for Ethiopian food (tibs, a hearty stew with meat, is a popular dish; here it costs Dh36.75 for lamb and beef versions)
Himalayan Restaurant in Mussaffa for Nepalese (the momos and chowmein noodles are best-selling items, and go for between Dh14 and Dh20)
Makalu in Mussaffa for Nepalese (get the chicken curry or chicken fry for Dh11)
Al Shaheen Cafeteria near Guardian Towers for a quick morning bite, especially the egg sandwich in paratha (Dh3.50)
Pinky Food Restaurant in Tanker Mai for tilapia
Tasty Zone for Nepalese-style noodles (Dh15)
Ibrahimi for Pakistani food (a quarter chicken tikka with roti costs Dh16)
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
MATCH INFO
England 241-3 (20 ovs)
Malan 130 no, Morgan 91
New Zealand 165 all out (16.5ovs)
Southee 39, Parkinson 4-47
England win by 76 runs
Series level at 2-2
RESULTS
1.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m
Winner: Dirilis Ertugrul, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer)
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
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2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
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3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
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3.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
Winner: Rayig, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
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4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
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Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Pathaan
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
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SPECS
Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman
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Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 306hp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: JCW Clubman, Dh220,500; JCW Countryman, Dh225,500
COPA DEL REY
Semi-final, first leg
Barcelona 1 (Malcom 57')
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Second leg, February 27
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Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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