A Frequently Asked Question is how to help and each time I'm asked that, I'm touched anew at the generosity, kindness and sincere desire to help of all of you here. Hopefully, this page will give you some ideas.

Some individuals initiate taking things a step further.. In each one of the cases, credit belongs to the individual/company.

Thankyou for wanting to help, for caring about these boys who have no one else and for reading this through till the end.

Grocery Donations

Food/water for abandoned camps is an ongoing issue so organizing funds/drives to gather the right food supplies and then taking them to the camps to give to the men is still a weekly task. Practical help is invaluable in this regard.

Recently, three schools: Raffles/Uptown Mirdiff/Australian School did a food/toiletries drive and then came to the camps with their students to distribute the supplies to the men. AIA, American University's fantastic volunteer society, gathered funds for food/water. They took over the weekly grocery that would have been done for the men (all I did was place the order), purchased from the supermarkets in the labour camps area the supplies that the men needed and delivered to them. It was extra special because some of the men were attending the English Classes held at AUD. Some of the AIA volunteers were saying that they were meeting those men every Friday for class but they could never have imagined the circumstances those men were living in. It was eye-opening. Expatwoman.com kindly made a substantial donation which was used towards a week's food/water for the men. Maria Carter organized and was funding subsidized water supplies for the men during summer. Wahbeez Wankadia, Inderdeep Singh and Maryum Khan regularly rally their friends to organize weekly groceries for the men. IHS Global raised funds in-house and then treated a camp to an all-out shopping spree. Ehsan Parham completed the Standard Chartered Marathon and donated his sponsorship funds towards caring for men of abandoned camps.

Humza Chaudhry, Mustafa Chaudhry, Ben Poletti and Mansur Mekan went on a trek to the Arctic Circle and set up a Fund for Men of Abandoned Camps with the sponsorship funds they raised. They have pretty much single-handedly been taking care of the weekly groceries, airplane tickets, transportation costs, fee costs, etc. of various abandoned camps for nearly two years now. These boys were 11 yea s old when they went on their trek. I remember they made a vow at the time that they would keep raising awareness until every stranded labourer returned home to his family. Their determination and steadfast commitment has been humbling.

These are some examples of incredibly generous and very importantly, extremely practical ways people/organizations have helped.

Creating awareness.

Many camps are still deadlocked in court cases. The more awareness there is, the more support the Page has, the more leverage it gives us in talking to the decision-makers because we're able to say to them that "SO many people care about these men. Please do something to help them".

Click "Like". You're not just a number, you become a voice.

Use your unique skill-sets and blessings available to you.

You have access to facilities that they don't. Maybe there's something you/your school/your company can do: organize an art workshop and an exhibition of their completed works, organize a talent competition, sponsor a movie night for them at the mall or via projector at your school auditorium/office, book a hairdresser for a few hours so that they can all get a decent barber service, take a camp shopping for new clothes (once I took the entire English class shopping as a treat from my husband so that they would all have new outfits to wear for their graduation party. Shereen/Askari, thanks for your help that evening! All of us had a blast!) The point is that these things are very doable.

Karen Dias gave the boys of an abandoned camp in Sajja digital photography workshops. Gulf Photo Plus passionately hosted an exhibition of the boys' work (sponsored by EPSOM and Johnson & Johnson) which was a great success. All proceeds of the exhibition which was titled "Inside Sajja: a Labour of Light" went directly to the boys who had participated and were evenly distributed amongst them. It was a moment of elation for them to be able to call their families back home and tell them about the money they had earned by their new skills and passion.

One of the key things we do is try to organize opportunities for abandoned camp men to "earn" money. We don't believe in charity handouts, we believe in maintaining their pride and self-respect and hopefully, providing them with some useful new skills along the way too.

A picnic in a park, kicking a football around for a game, these are things we are blessed enough to be able to take for granted but which mean so very much to them. Moez Hemani and his beautiful wife have a tradition. Each year they take a large group of workers out and give them a fantastic treat. This year it was a lunch cruise (there was even a magic show and dancing!) along the Creek for 50 men. The year before it was a desert safari for 100 men. These men build our beautiful cities but they never get a chance to enjoy them the way we do. It doesn't need to be that way. Moez and his wife give them the gift of an unforgettable experience. That's priceless.

Adopt-a-Camp provides the link and the know-how between ideas on how to improve life for the men and the labour camps themselves. Sometimes I get so busy just taking care of the boys that I often don't have time to think beyond that and so your ideas are always a delight.

Transportation.

If you are someone or know of someone who can provide coaches/coasters/ vans to transport the boys to and from such outings, that would be really helpful. Also, a trickle of men from abandoned camps has started going home. These men need transportation: someone to pick them from their camp and drop them to the airport. Neha Mistry, Maria Carter and Warda alJawahiry have been three such helpful angels. Sponsorship of plane tickets is also required. I'll post on the Facebook page when the next boy/boys are joyfully returning home and that is a very real way you can reach out and help.

Storage.

Storage space is constantly an issue. If someone has a garage which they don't mind lending out as storage or space in a warehouse, please get in touch!

Open your eyes and look around.

Even if you're not coming to the camps on a regular basis or involved with labourers as such, there are still SO many people within your immediate vicinity where you can make a difference. The cleaner at the spa where you go for your massages, the cleaners at the mall quietly sweeping away your detritus while you're shopping away, the men/women standing in the heat in the mall's parking lots for your tickets, the security guard in your building/community, the gardeners who come round, the labourer standing behind you in the queue at the grocery store, the female attendants in the ladies' washroom.

You can forgo the coffee you were going to get and slip them a tip. You can create your own goody bags at home and do a "giving day" with your children: giving the bags away to cleaners, car-washing boys, etc. It's a great way to spend an afternoon at the mall with your kids. My God! The smiles on everyone's faces by the end of it are priceless!

Adopt-a-Camp's philosophy is all about human beings reaching out to human beings. There are no political agendas, no committee meetings, no mantras being beaten on a drum, no glamorous galas. It's as simple as life can be. A smile, a gesture, simple caring. It's something any one of us can do.

General stuff:

Many kind people offer to come out to the camps and lend a pair of hands on my daily rounds. Unlike other regular volunteering situations and our own Care Packages events, where a pair of hands are invaluable; on normal trips, I go to labour camps where there are hundreds, if not thousands, of pairs of hands. They guys are lovely. They do all the lifting, carrying, sorting, etc. so it's extremely rare to need people coming along just like that.

Though there is rarely need on a daily basis for people to come along to the visits, there are many times when we reach out for your help via postings on Adopt-a-Camp's Facebook page. If the request is something that speaks to your heart and fits in your schedule, please respond on the page and we'll gratefully get in touch with you