Author Archives: Web team

End of the line for kidnap ship

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Strofades IV scrappedThe M.V. Strofades IV, which was used in 2010 to kidnap aid workers including Aid Convoy’s director Kieran Turner, has been reported scrapped in Turkey.

The aid workers had been part of the Road to Hope convoy to Gaza, which had chartered the vessel to transport approximately 35 ambulances and medical supplies vehicles from Libya to Egypt, prior to their final land passage over the border into Gaza. This expensive and complicated method of delivery is mandated by the Egyptians who support entry to Gaza only via the seaport or airport at the Eastern Sinai town of Al Arish.

It is still not known for certain why the owner and captain of the vessel initiated the kidnap; during their illegal exit from the port of Derna in Libya – directly against the harbourmaster’s instructions – they caused a tremendous amount of damage to their own ship, and indeed the harbour walls. They also attempted to ram a coastguard vessel. The team of 7 British, 2 Irish, and 1 Algerian volunteers, together with 7 Libyan port officials and policemen, were held in extremely unsafe conditions on the Mediterranean Sea for 4 days before being rescued by Greek commando special forces, after assistance from the container ship OOCL Oakland, which answered their radio mayday call. The owner and captain of the Strofades IV were arrested in Greece.

Builders surveying playground site

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We’re extremely pleased that our builders have moved in and begun survey work on the site in Bathorë, Albania, where we will soon have a children’s playground in place.

We first learnt of the area in 2003, and at that time the pressing need was for a clean water supply, and safer electricity connections. As the large, squatted area has been “normalised” and brought into the consideration of the local authority in surrounding Kamez, the needs have moved on. Locals have asked us for some provision for children who are currently able to play only in the streets.

Bathore project siteThanks to the enthusiasm of a local community leader (pictured, at the site), we have secured a piece of land which – pending surveys and permissions – will soon become a children’s playground. We intend constructing simple play equipment for younger children, but also a skate park with considerable concrete structures, which should help to maintain the physical security and integrity of the site itself.