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Easter Convoy of Humanitarian Aid 2010
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You may need to refresh this page to see all the latest entries, some browsers cache pages previously viewed
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7.5 tonners:
CB Name - Crew
Robin Hood - Chas Storer & Bernie Sullivan
Busby - Tom Conlin & Jan Carling
Frantic - Anthony Collett & Frank Callanan
Brother Bear - Simon Jones, Paul Dyer and Donna Smith
Jist About - Jill Irwin & Sue Tull
Grumpies - Graham Crame & John Cox
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Big Rigs:
CB Name - Crew
Nibsy - Norman Hollingsworth & Dave Fishlock
Mr Flibble - Dave Smith and Roddy Phillip
Late Entry - Dave Luscombe Russell and Ziggy Duly
Flyers:
Jackie Snape
Carolyn Hill
Liz Skivington
Anthony Watson
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Convoy 'Wrap up' report (otherwise known as Borders and Balderdash, part two)
Tuesday 13th April 2010
It still doesn't get any easier!
As often happens, events during the convoy seemed to overtake the 'pen', or should I say the 'fingers and keyboard'!
We all got back to the UK, one way or the other, on Thursday or Friday last week. Having had at least 6 weeks of convoy preparations and then convoy, which left precious little time for anything else, Bev and I dreamt of a weekend off
.but then spent all of Saturday and Sunday morning clearing up 'Robin Hood', rounding the day off with a wonderful sunny afternoon's gardening!
Looking back to the convoy preparations, and then to the convoy itself, we had more than our fare share of challenges to cope with this time, yet again! Our airborne volunteer numbers dwindled between the January Briefing and our departure date, such that our funding commitments for the HGV's are going to be 'tight', and BA cabin Crews and their unions did their best to add to our worries. Malcolm and Elaine had to drop out because of Malcolm's overdue hernia op, but we're delighted that he's now recovering and they are looking forward to joining us again as soon as they can, and Mike had to drop out of the flying crew at the last minute, also because of illness, but again we understand he's recovering well and we look forward to seeing him again soon.
We had been considering going onto Albania to assist recent flood victims, after finishing in Kosovo, but that plan was dropped because in the few weeks before we departed, a good deal of international support was sent to Albania from many other countries around the world in the form of goods, as well as financial support.
For my full report on our challenges, and heartaches, please click here. Well done to all the team who came with us, another great job under less than simple circumstances.
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Friday 9th April From Dave Fishlock
Norman and Dave along with various helpers visited 10 schools during the Easter Convoy, with a total number of pupils around 10,000. Some of the smaller schools seemed fairly well equipped by Kosovo standards but really lacked computers and sports equipment. Some of the larger 1500+ pupil schools were in really bad condition. One class had wood propping up the floor above. Another class was in a shipping container with 3 children sharing each 2 chairs, most of which had the backs missing. All the Schools were really grateful for the equipment supplied by Norman and the Rotary Club of Wickford.
After returning to the warehouse on the second day myself & Anthony decided that the lack of sports equipment and specific requests for basketball equipment must be met. So using 400 euros of our Charity money we made a trip to Pristina to purchase the equipment and returned to two of the most needy schools over the following days to deliver it.
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Thursday 8th April 00.15 from Dave Smith
Only Mr Flibble has gone on to Vlissingen as the Ford ferry was full. On the way Roddy will be dropped off to catch his flight home to Scotland. Late Entry and Nibsy are now heading towards Calais to catch a ferry from there.
08.30 from Chas
The remaining convoy stopped overnight at Aachen in Germany, and all being well, will be home tonight.
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Wed 7th April
From Dave Smith
Stayed at Hegyeshalom last night. The HGVs split off from the main convoy at 0700 this morning. Heading for the 5am boat tomorrow at Vlissingen.
From Tom Conlin
Good day today. We left Hegyeshalom at 0810 this morning and we stopped just north of Frankfurt at 2050 for our overnight stop. No traumas today and we expect to be on the late afternoon ferry from Calais tomorrow to get home Thursday night.
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Tuesday 6th April
From Dave Fishlock
The return convoy cleared the Serb / Hungarian border at about noon and are planning to spend the night at Hegyeshalom just short of the Austrian border.
Monday 5th April
From Dave L-R
Today the convoyers will start the long journey home contemplating a successful but emotionally moving convoy.
After a less eventful crossing of the Kosovo / Serbian border than the last convoy, the trucks headed up through Serbia and spent the night at the National Hotel in Belgrade.
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Sunday 4th April
From Jill Irwin
Today was another long and satisfying day, with a joint drop, with Robin Hood, to almost 90 families, followed by a visit to the Mental health centre. After this, we went to another family consisting of a widow and her two small children who we had visited on a previous convoy. Chas had compiled a montage of photos of her deceased husband with her and the children, which he presented to her - a very emotional moment for us all. Finally back to the hotel just in time for dinner. I believe the phrase is "exhausted but triumphant"!
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Saturday 3rd April
From Jill Irwin
The last two days 'Jist About' has been too busy to have the energy to report in the evening! On Saturday we visited a collective centre at Magura and made a very successful drop to 30 families, mainly Roma. Bernie saw a woman who had one leg amputated at the knee, and the other leg had no foot. She was sitting on the floor by the door of her small apartment. It was one of the apartments provided for her community after they had struggled to survive for many years in shacks in Plementina. Her husband collected and sold aluminium cans to support his family. Their only other income - just over 1 euro per day is provided by the government. We thought we could help her, so a call was made to the warehouse to see if we had a wheelchair we could take to her.
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We had to go back to the warehouse to collect the donated welding equipment to take to Branca and her son, so that he can find work. When we got back there a wheelchair had been found, which we took back to Magura. The look on the woman's face when she saw it was worth the day's wait at the Serbian border!
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Friday 2nd April
From Chas Storer
All trucks were loaded last night, so this morning was just a short briefing ("has everyone remembered to take their pills") and the usual last minute changes before we all got away. Robin Hood with Zef and Roger to Viti, where we had 60 Albanian families to help - the sun was shining so we laid things out in piles, and each family came forward when called to pick up their things - 16kg of flour, shoes, clothes, toiletries, and their 'Froggy Frenzy' toy! Chas had to break off for a few phone calls to resolve a small complication with 'grumpies' drop, but Bernie and Jackie had the local helpers well under control! A quick TV interview for Chas with the film crew, and then off to a well earned pizza before returning to Pristina. Back at the warehouse, everything was ready for reloading, but with so much stuff to load, we were very grateful for Johno's return with another team of local friends. Where are the days going?
Thursday 1st April
From Chas Storer
The usual great egg breakfast, followed by a Briefing at the warehouse, and after all guides and interpreters arrived, we all went in convoy to Gjilane where we split into our distribution groups- no major changes of plan this morning, so Tom's had an easy day so far (well easy may be a small overstatement!) - Most crews seem to have had a great day and some really good well behaved 'drops', but as so often happens, one of the crews, Frantic, did have a few frustrations as the crowds started to get the better of the situation, but it all ended up ok. 'Robin Hood' (Chas and Bernie) had fantastic help from Carolyn who never stopped lifting and moving boxes with enthusiasm; it was to be two RAE (Roma, Ashkalia, and Eygyptian) drops, and within only a minute, 63 families became 72
.nothing new there then!
. But they were all well behaved, and we gave things to all 72 families in record time, in fact so much so that we even managed to eat lunch! Gjilane in the morning, and Kamenice in the afternoon. Bernie had been tasked to make up some more reading specs tester boxes, and they worked a real treat! No unhappy customers, indeed everyone was smiling, including the 'extras' that turned up for specs!
From Jill Irwin
A heavy shower yesterday proved to been an April Fool's day joke and our first drop went well, in lovely sunshine, although handing out 16k bags of flour is something of a challlenge! Today we have rather more conventional loads of food to deliver, and Jist About looking forward hopefully to another successful and dry day.
From Bernie Sullivan
We made two very successful aid distributions to RAE (Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian) groups in Giljane and Kamenica in Kosovo today. 70 very impoverished families were provided with sacks of flour, shoes, clothing and bedding. Children with almost no toys of their own also received stunning "Froggie Frenzy" toys. All families were found to be extremely poor - some children with no shoes, living in desperate circumstances. Other convoyers made deliveries to very poor Serbian, Albanian and RAE families in other towns and villages.
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