Nordisk Hjälp can look back on the year of 2015 with both pride and sadness. We are happy about the efforts made by the organization and the sacrificial work of our volunteers, both in Lebanon and Palestine as well as in Sweden. Nordisk Hjälp is growing, and now has its own offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Gaza. The child sponsorship business continues to increase in scope, seeing an increase of just over 15% since last year. However we do feel sad about the continued and increasingly worse suffering that is happening within the Middle East.
In February the largest container of its kind was filled with clothes, shoes, toys and kitchenware donated by the public was sent to Lebanon. This was then distributed in a number of refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, including Ein el-Helweh and Yarmouk outside Damascus.
In the spring Gaza was hit by heavy flooding, adding to the misery especially for those whose homes were destroyed in the 2014 war. Drinking water was spoiled and diseases such as cholera and typhus threatened to break out. Nordisk Hjälp bought thirty water pumps and had the office in Gaza distribute these where they were most needed. After the flooding stopped, the pumps continue their use to improve the supply of drinking water.
Alhaja Soad Salem has made a testament which helped war victims, the poor and the needy living in the Gaza Strip. A number of projects are to be implemented, one of which includes donating 10 sewing machines to poor women so that they can then learn to sew to later find jobs and become self-sufficient. Another is to fund a water source for a hospital.
Nordisk Hjälp continues with the support efforts for Syrian refugees who are in the refugee camps in Lebanon and has sent a container full of clothes. It was distributed to different areas in the country.
Nordisk Hjälp donated 10 water pumps to help the Gazans after the flood that hit the area. The water has receded in most places, but several thousand people are still living in temporary camps.
