DOHA: A Syrian village battered in war has been rebuilt with donations collected for Qatar Charity (QC) by a group of elite Qatari youth.
The donation of QR12m ($3.29m) was collected in a charity drive titled ‘Competitors 2’ that lasted only 45 days.
‘Competitors 2’ village built with part of the donation, opened to beneficiaries earlier this year and consists of 100 housing units for 600 people. The area of each unit is 17.5sqm and comprises two rooms.
The village has a mosque, a school, a medical clinic and points for distributing water and collecting garbage. There are also toilets, sinks and children’s playgrounds. The village is environmental-friendly as it uses solar energy.
Each beneficiary family is provided with a fridge, a fan, a stove, a radio, eight mattresses, six blankets, curtains, carpets and water containers.
The village cost QR2.6m to rebuild and was completed almost by 2014-end.
QC said in a statement yesterday that the village was named ‘Competitors 2’ because it was funded by a group of young Qatari elite as part of a ‘Competitors’ contest held by the charity.
The contest aimed to engage society in charity work in an unusual manner and invest the fame of the category (of participants) in humanitarian work.
Participants raised QR12m in 45 days in the first half (January-June) of 2014 for people affected by violence in Syria. Inhabitants of the village were displaced in violence and had to leave in search of refuge.
For example, one displaced, Siraj, told a QC delegation that he and his six family members lived in a tent in Al Salameh border camp for 18 months.
He narrated his and his family’s suffering and how they braved the freezing winter and scorching summer heat in the tent.
The delegation that visited the village included Mohamed Abdullah Al Yafei, Manager, Support Services Directorate, and Ibrahim Zainal, Deputy Executive Director, International Development Department.
‘Competitors 2’ also funded other projects, including operating a mobile bakery in Syria, Al Amal hospital on the Turkish-Syrian border and bakeries elsewhere for displaced Syrians.
QC has implemented four village projects for displaced Syrians with 400 pre-fabricated housing units.
By November, it will complete Al Rayyan residential town, being built at a cost of QR40m. It will have 1,400 homes and necessary facilities.The Peninsula
