I visited Hatay at the end of January 2020, with Syria Relief, to conduct a needs assessment for Project Arkadas. The project was scheduled to be delivered in summer 2020 by a group of volunteers however the Coronavirus pandemic has changed that, the delivery timetable may have changed but the principles of the project remain the same.

Project Arkadas’ vision is to provide a friendly, caring, helping hand to those who have been deprived through crises.

The first visit to Hatay, visiting Syrian support agencies and refugees, sowed the seed that I hope will develop into a force for good. I have no illusions about the challenges that will be presented along the way in trying to introduce a scheme that has no immediate benefit to beneficiaries.

On this first visit I delivered several boxes of donations direct to Syria Relief in Turkey and arranged for further boxes to be shipped to Syria.

I visited several centres and business initiatives and gained mutual agreement to deliver training to beneficiaries.

The training initiative will be called Partnership with UK Friendship Training and I am developing an action plan to take this forward.