Art Exhibition and Auction – Total

Art Exhibition and Auction

ENTRIES WELCOME – original or previously existing pieces

Viewing to begin at 11am
Auction to begin at 6pm

Entries to be handed in to the office at the Town Hall by the 20th June for sorting. Please state that it’s for the Refugee Art Exhibition/Auction when handing in pieces. Please also attach name of donor and artwork (and state if you are the original artist).

ALL ENTRIES TO BE AUCTIONED

Syrians Hold Vigil for Paris

Syrians in Douma showing their solidarity with Paris in the aftermath of the tragedy on Friday.

When the world can come together like this wherever tragedy hits, then there will be hope for a positive future.

Life in Lesbos: “The Children’s Feet Are Rotting – You Guys Have One Month and Then All These People Will Be Dead”

“There are thousands of children here and their feet are literally rotting, they can’t keep dry, they have high fevers and they’re standing in the pouring rain for days on end. You have one month guys, and then all these people will be dead”.

Those were the final words of Dr Linda on the phone, a doctor that our volunteer organisations (Help Refugees and CalAid) had asked to fly out to Lesbos in response to an emergency cry for help from an overwhelmed volunteer on the ground.

The weight of those words and the responsibility that comes with them felt crippling. But why are we, a film maker, a radio presenter, and a music assistant being tasked with this responsibility? Shouldn’t, as we had presumed, the large charities and governments be taking the charge of care for the precious lives arriving on Europe shores?

Another call came in – this time from volunteers in Serbia – the refugees are burning plastic bags to keep warm, they have nothing else, they are freezing to death, and the fumes from the bags are slowly poisoning them, please send help.

Then another – this time from volunteers on Lesbos trying to find out how to order body bags en masse… will they have to resort this? Time will tell, but certainly people there have already started to die.

Solidarity Through Music – Total

The money has been counted. Recounted. Counted again. Counted once more to be sure. Then counted a further time just incase. And now we have it…

Musicians turn out in solidarity with refugees

The Dirty Lemons performing at Islesburgh as part of yesterday’s Solidarity Through Music fundraiser. Photo: Chris Brown

SOLIDARITY Through Music managed to raise over £1,000 for refugees on Saturday in a packed eight-hour fundraising event featuring over 10 musical acts in Islesburgh.

Artists who had turned out to support the cause covered the whole spectrum of music in the isles, included Lisa Ward, the Donald Anderson Band, the Blue Melts, the Dirty Lemons, Full Swing, Deja Vu, Annalie Irvine, Alan McKay and Robert Bennet.

Billed special guests Skerryvore, unfortunately, had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict, but made sure to give a donation. Amnesty Shetland members were on hand to lend their support and councillor Gary Cleaver was sound engineer for the day.

Shetland again demonstrated its famous generosity towards good causes with locals showing up en masse to get a look at the acts on show, and over a dozen local businesses contributed towards the raffle “without hesitation”, including a grand prize of a £500 mattress of choice from Home Furnishings.

[Read more here]

Musical extravaganza raises money for refugee crisis

The Donald Anderson Band entertain the crowd. Photo: Chris Brown.

Music lovers flocked to Islesburgh this weekend to raise funds for the refugee crisis.

A broad array of local talent took to the stage yesterday for the Solidarity Through Music gig – from rock trio The Dirty Lemons, brass-bursting The Bluemelts, The Donald Anderson Band and poet Nat Hall.

Money raised will go to Re-Act Scotland, Doctors of the World and the World Food Programme.

[Read more here]

A BIG Thank You – Solidarity Through Music

Well, that’s the event done and dusted. Thank you very much to all the people who came and bought raffle tickets/made donations etc and added to the great atmosphere of the day, this afternoon in particular was a real buzz and a great crowd. A few teething problems in the beginning, but once we were under way it was great. Managed to make up the time in the end to be able to finish on schedule (though unfortunately ran out of time to have the guitar auction, so got that to do later).

Thank you to Alan Mckay & Robert Bennet, Aleksandar McKay, Annalie Irvine, Full Swing, Deja-Vu, the dirty lemons, Lisa Ward, Autopilot, Bluemelts and The Donald Anderson Band who donated their time to the event and for all being simply amazing (and generously patient).

Thank you to Gary Cleaver for being our sound elf/life saver and for the awesome guitar he donated.

Thank you to Paparwark Furniture, Harry’s Department Store Ltd, Aspects/C & C Suits, Klaize Hub Shetland, The Shetland Times Bookshop, Jamiesons of Shetland Hay’s Dock Cafe Restaurant, Mareel, The Shetland Fudge Company Ltd, High Level Music (Official), Raba Indian Restaurant, Peerie Shop, Boots, Lerwick and Westside Pine for donating to the raffle, and Home Furnishing of Lerwick for our star prize.

Thank you to Artmachine (Shetland) Ltd for the FANTASTIC banners.

Thank you to Duncan Kidson for the use of his drums throughout.

Thank you to SKERRYVORE OFFICIAL who unfortunately couldn’t play in the end, but donated to the raffle and still came along to say hi (hope it all went well at Aith tonight).

Thank you to the volunteers and Amnesty Shetland for helping out and just simply doing so much.

Merci to Nat Hall for her specially written poems.

Sorry to The FB for not being able to squeeze you in, but thanks for wanting to play and turning up. We’ll hopefully have you guys perform another time.

Learned a lot today from our first event, so hopefully take that forward to the next time and iron out the issues to make things run smoother with each occasion. It’s all a learning curve.

But thank you ALL again, and for your generosity.

Time for some well earned sleep, and we’ll let you all know the total money raised once we count it all up and figure out the profits from the refreshments (but on initial glances, you’ve done us and yourselves proud).

One world, one people.

Refugee crisis: ‘Orphan’ children locked up in ‘medieval’ prisons alongside adult criminals on Greek island of Kos

After arriving by boat from Turkey, children as young as 11 are routinely being detained in filthy police cells – and the UN has been forced to intervene.

A young Syrian boy arrives on the island of Kos, which is struggling to cope with the record numbers of refugees AP

The United Nations refugee agency has been forced to step in to save scores of “orphan” children from detention in filthy police cells on the Greek island of Kos after its complaints at the squalid conditions went unheeded.

Children as young as 11 who arrived by boat from Turkey without their parents or other adult relatives have been held for weeks at a time in cells smeared in faeces, alongside adult criminals, while Greek authorities determined where to relocate them.

Greek officials say they are obliged to keep the children securely for their own safety as legal minors. But volunteers from a non-governmental organisation that visits prisoners at Kos’s central police station every day said they were shocked by the “medieval” conditions there.

They are provided with only one meal a day, in addition to fresh fruit and water that is supplied by charities and aid agencies, and on at least one occasion children in police detention went for two days without food. They are not allowed to go outside and are handcuffed if they are moved to a different location, several witnesses said.

“It’s really filthy,” one volunteer, who asked not to be named, told The Independent. “There are bare electrical wires sticking out of the ceiling… There is shit on the floor and it is running out of the cell. They have to reach out through bars to receive their food. This is not normal in Europe.”

[Read more here]

Solidarity Through Music Raffle