Following the earthquake which hit the Syria-Turkey border earlier this year, Aquabox has worked with partner organisations to send a substantial consignment of aid to the area.
While Aquabox’s volunteer teams were preparing the shipment, our friends at the Rotary Club of Stade in Germany through their connection with RC Paderborn, also in Germany, introduced us to the international logistics provider DB Schenker. Schenker generously offered to fund the cost of shipping a 20ft container to the affected area, and RC Stade and RC Stade Elbmarschen also made significant financial contributions. This consignment will provide humanitarian aid for more than 250 families, and a source of safe, clean water for as many as 12,000 people – and another UK charity, Water Survival Box, provided a further two hundred boxes of aid as well.
The shipment is currently on the way to Mersin in eastern Turkey. It is expected to arrive during the second week of July, when our trusted associates in the area, Hand in Hand for Aid and Development (HIHFAD), will oversee its transfer to lorries that will take the aid to support families in the areas on the Turkish Syrian border impacted by the recent earthquake, and affected by water-borne diseases such as cholera. HIHfAD has been supporting displaced persons and families caught up the recent conflicts in the region for the past 20 years, and Aquabox has partnered with them for the past 10 years.
“Aquabox and Water Survival Box would like to thank DB Schenker for financing the shipping and logistics for this consignment; Guenter Staib and our wonderful supporters at the Rotary Club of Stade for setting up this logistics partnership; and both Rotary Clubs from Stade for their financial support,” said Aquabox chairman Roger Cassidy. “And we also acknowledge the lifesaving work that HIHFAD are continuing to undertake in the aftermath of the earthquake.”