City charity working flat out to help Syria
Forth Valley medic spearheading effort for quake-hit country
A Stirling-based humanitarian charity has been hard at work building shelters and delivering vital aid to desperate people in Syria displaced by the devastating earthquake.
So far, more than 48,000 people in Syria and Turkey have died and a further 123,000 injured following the catastrophic tremor that struck earlier this month.
Aid4all is based in the city’s Baker Street. Since the catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours on Monday, February 6, volunteers from the charity have been collecting supplies to be sent to those in desperate need in northern Syria.
With the country already ravaged by war and with no state support, Syrians have been left in dire need.
Leading the appeal is the charity’s founder and chairman, Dr Ghassan Al-hourani – a consultant paediatrician at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
Dr Al-hourani set up the charity more than a decade ago with the aim of providing relief and assistance to people in Scotland, the United Kingdom and overseas who are the victims of natural disaster, war or catastrophe.
They distribute goods, services, food and medical aid through working in partnership with recognised aid agencies.
It also provides financial support to those in desperate need.
At present the charity is helping to build shelters for people who have lost their homes in Syria. Dr Al-hourani said: “Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed leaving survivors facing freezing conditions in the north of Syria where no state or government support has been offered.
“These earthquakes are devastating for an area that has already been strained by the Syrian conflict.
“These people are already suffering, for more than a decade, and have been displaced from homes to other areas many times.
“Most of them, if not all of them, are living in partially destroyed buildings which are not safe.
“Many of them died and a lot of them are missing under the collapsed buildings.”
He added: “Aid4all is building shelters for the homeless people in the north of Syria as well as sanitary facilities and we are offering them clean water and food as well as blankets and mattresses.
“Aid4all offers rescue medication, in particular intravenous paracetamol, as many people have broken bones or major trauma and this is the only available medication to ease the pain.
“In the past, we’ve sent convoys. But the roads are damaged and Hatai Airport is closed and any convoy needs weeks to travel to the north of Syria as it is difficult to cross the border between Turkey and Syria.
“We’ve found the best way is donations of money to buy the needed materials from the local market.”
Earlier this month, we told how a Turkish man living in Stirling spoke of his anguish as the search continued for over 70 members of his family missing following the earthquake.
Ekrem Ozturk said he feared for his family’s safety, after many of them saw all of their possessions and homes destroyed.
Ekrem lives in Buchlyvie with his wife Stacey and their four sons. They moved to the area in 2009 for the birth of their first son. Originally from Adiyaman – a city in southeastern Turkey – Ekrem grew up in Adana. His relatives living in Turkey enlisted themselves in the frantic mission to rescue survivors.
A new £15million distillery project for Stirling – which was refused by council planners – is to be given another airing before councillors this week.
Members of Stirling Council’s local review body panel – which considers planning appeals – agreed last October that they should visit the proposed Wolfcraig Distillery site and invite the applicants and objectors to address them at a hearing, feeling the bid was too significant to decide there and then.
The appeal comes before the panel again on Friday.
The planning application includes a distillery and visitor centre for the production of whisky and other spirits, a still house, workshop, distillery shop, events space, cafe, restaurant and car and coach parking plus a new access road on land 465 metres south of Craigforth.
Council planners refused the application in 2021 saying the scale and nature of the restaurant/café, event space and shop was likely to “detract from the offerings within Stirling city centre” and that there was “insufficient information”to back the applicant’s claims of city centre benefit.
They also cited the “sensitive location”, saying the proposal would be“a significant intrusion into the open landscape”.
Developerswolfcraig, however, have claimed the distillery and visitor centre would be a“visitor destination target”for tourists to Stirling and could generate a staggering £1billion knock-on effect for the local economy over the next decade, and say they even have backing from local business organisations.
They argue that there would be a direct investment in Stirling of around £18m and the creation of up to 50 jobs along with“spin off” benefits for Stirling and the city centre in the form of increased footfall and longer dwell times.
Stirling’s MP Alyn Smith has also voiced support for the distillery.
Some neighbours, however, are less than enthusiastic about the development.
North Kersebonny Residents’housing Association objected to the application on behalf of 10 owners at nearby North Kersebonny Steading citing grounds including that the character of the area would be irreversibly changed.
They have reiterated their concerns during the appeal process.
We’ve found the best way is donations of money to buy the needed materials from the local market