Serbian Flood disaster

[Rockingit]

Not being content with just sorting out floods in Somerset I've just been selected to go as part of an emergency team to go to Serbia to provide 'expert' assistance. This isn't a jolly, this is a direct plea that has come in and via the Serbian embassy. It's a little odd how you can become an expert by accident, but there you go. There are two small teams going from here in two waves, one leaves on Thursday and the other (mine) on Sunday, being coordinated by an organisation called Khalsa Aid (who were instrumental here in Somerset). Apart from the obvious risks, this is triple difficult due to the fact that all the old landmines leftover from the war have all washed down the mountainside in landslips and are now mingling in unknown areas amongst the water - people are dying for more than one reason.

However, the whole thing is incredibly difficult logistically due to the fact that no-one flies direct to Sarajevo from the UK and there's no MOD style relief sorted yet either to fly people out due to politics etc. Various options are being worked on to enable this to happen and be zero cost, but until that's been confirmed the team are having to make fairly tortuous travel plans via commercial routes, and that requires cash-flow to do.

So....here you go: There's enough of you on here, if everyone chipped in a quid it'd be sorted for the entire team! It's all very last minute dot com here in the UK and some official channel for donations has yet to be set up, but the following PayPal system is genuine and direct:


1. please log on to https://www.paypal.com/uk,
2. then log in using your paypal email address and password.
3. Click on the Send Money tab, and enter in the email address [email protected], the amount (in GBP), and click on I'm sending money to family and friends (at this point you will be given a note on how much you will be charged as a fee - free if by bank account or debit card). Click on Continue.
4.You can then add a subject and message on there if you wish. Click on Send Money and the job is done.

Thanking you all for your support,

Rock.

 

[Rockingit]

http://ercportal.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ercmapsthumbs/ECDM_20140520_BHI_Floods.JPG

 

[Marvo]

How much do you need to raise to get you over there?

 

[Rockingit]

We're not entirely sure! One of the issues is in identifying where to go to be best used (there is someone there already making contact and getting to grips with that) - once we know that we'll be able to make plans and work out flights and so on. Some flights are available for free to humanitarian relief by some of the Serbian airlines but only going to certain locations - it's a big place to then cross and especially when roads are blocked. In total my guess is that we probably need a fund of around £2k for the two small teams going out (one tomorrow and then my team on Sunday) as the plan is to get in and out for a variety of reasons not least of which is personal safety. The area is literally awash with landmines which have washed out of the leftover minefields from the war in landslides, plus all the marker posts of the known fields have also now been washed away! It's not something I'm doing lightly and it's a long way from a jolly out of the office! There is a healthy fund starting here (this really did only get off the ground yesterday) but every little helps - hence the appeal here! If every member here donated as little as 50p it would be sorted!