Donations and assistance
If you have suitable humanitarian goods available (for more details please see below) or if you are willing to offer time and energy, please contact us at the Foundation’s office: office@korbgemeinschaft.at or by phone: Sr. Walburga (0676 5555 389).
What is needed?
Due to the destructions by the war and by the additional hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, even basic supplies are missing in many places. In addition to the whole range of home textiles such as warm blankets, bed linen, bathroom and kitchen towels, people are in need of practical clothing for all age groups (especially for babies and children) and shoes (particularly sneakers, comfortable and robust walking shoes) for children and adults. There is also a lack of practical kitchen utensils and the whole range of “do it yourself” tools. Basic equipment for kindergartens, schools, old people’s homes and parish centres is also needed. The list of items in demand thus ranges from beds for children, hospitals and nursing homes, to kindergarten and school benches and tables, kitchen equipment and electric sewing machines, onto fabrics and sewing accessories, wools and yarns. It is neither feasible nor would it make sense to draw up a complete list of items needed, as the relevant priorities and needs are likely to change from time to time.
Condition of the collected goods
In principle, anything useful for survival and reconstruction is needed, always provided that it is in a state and condition in which the donor would hope to receive gifts when trying to put himself or herself in the situation of the recipient. Please be sure that clothes and other textiles are clean and tidy, and that equipment and tools are complete and functional (electrical appliances have, by the way, the same power connections in Syria as in Austria). As for dishes and kitchen utensils, please bear in mind the risks of damage during the long container transport route, which excludes delicate and overly fragile items.
Bearing in mind the costs of container transports, local acquisition may prove to be more reasonable and more cost effective for certain items such as basic school materials or specific equipment.
Storage of humanitarian goods and container transports
The attitude of Austrians regarding the donation of humanitarian relief goods is very generous. We are very grateful for this. Occasionally, however, we face challenges regarding sufficient storage space in the lead-up to the dispatch of a transport container. Such transports require longer-term preparation (obtaining import licenses, preparing detailed multilingual packing lists, coordinating a sufficient number of volunteer helpers to pack the boxes and to load the container). We also need to secure, ahead of time, the necessary donations for the transportation costs and harbour fees (about € 4,000 per 40-foot container of a capacity of 76 m3).
Our urgent request is therefore aimed at charitable promoters who
- are able to take over the costs a container transport in whole or in part
- are able to provide a storage place for humanitarian goods for a certain duration
- are able to finance (fully or in part) the purchase of a used container (amounting to about € 2,000 plus delivery to the loading site), as such containers remaining at the collection site for a longer period would be immensely useful for the collection of bulky items (such as school furniture, mattresses, hospital beds, etc.)
- are able to offer a medium to large-sized transportation bus free of charge or at low cost for collecting bulky goods (the availability of such busses from time to time for a few hours or a day would be immensely helpful)
Any type of help is valuable
Apart from donations in kind and money, volunteer helpers are of course needed again and again. By contributing your time and energy, you can provide valuable help in collecting relief goods, sorting and stacking the goods in the interim storage rooms, packing and labelling the boxes, and loading the goods into the containers.
All of these contributions help to ensure that the humanitarian goods will reach our suffering brothers and sisters in Syria in a proper condition. This will create confidence among the grateful recipients that they haven’t been forgotten by the world, and it will give hope that gradually the war-torn country will be rebuilt and will return to normality.
May God bless and guard every single one of you and your kind helping hands.