Introduction.

My friend and former ‘fixer' Raed Burhan was forced to flee the war in Syria. Now he is living as a refugee in Egypt with his family.

Raed needs our help to finish his dentistry degree - and to help raise funds for him I'll be swimming 20km down the icy River Dart in September. 

I met Raed when I lived in Beirut as the Middle East Correspondent for The Times of London. He worked as my translator and my 'fixer'. He is a talented man, a devoted father and he is desperate to complete his dentistry degree so that he can support his family and fulfil his own potential.

Before the war broke out he was one of the top students at Damascus University. He took part in anti-government protests and now he can’t go home. The war has cost him so much.

I know Raed to be brave, principled, talented and deserving of a future. I feel I owe a great debt to Raed and to many others like him who worked with me in the Middle East. They took great risks and many like Raed now live in exile.

Because of this I ask your help for my friend.

Raed writes:

I will provide a small number of updates in the coming months so that you will know whether this appeal has been successful and whether Raed has been able to achieve his goal.

My Challenge



I have been training to undertake the ‘Dart 10k’ swimming race down England’s Dart River on September 13th-14th 2019.

This will consist of a 10km endurance race down the lower reaches of the river.

It will be a wretched four hour ordeal for my 43-year-old frame (though admittedly the views through my goggles will be nice when I take a breath). 

However, since this might seem to some of you an insufficiently extreme test of endurance a small number of deranged masochists will then repeat the entire race the following day. I shall be in their number.



So I will swim 20km over two days. 

Since I am volunteering to do the challenge twice over, I shall be delighted if you consider sponsoring me for double the amount you might otherwise give.

If this proves insufficient to raise the target sum of money required then other challenges will have to follow.
 


Background

Raed is 29 years old. He grew up in a town named Zabadani in the mountains close to the Lebanese border. The town opposed the Assad government when the 2011 revolution began in Syria.

Below is a picture of Raed and six of his friends during the first pro-democracy protests. Four are now living in exile. One was killed in fighting and another was tortured and executed in prison. The other is trapped in the last remaining pocket of rebel held territory in Idlib Province.

Zabadani was subject to a sustained siege by government forces between 2012-2016 during which many civilians died of starvation. The inhabitants, including Raed’s family, suffered terrible privations. The inhabitants who survived did so in many cases by eating grass, tree bark and even their domestic pets. 



Raed managed to escape the town and cross into Lebanon in July 2014; but as a Syrian refugee he was not allowed to participate in the legal economy of that country.




In 2017 he managed to reach Egypt via Sudan where he has subsequently been granted asylum. Raed's ambition is to complete the studies he had begun at the University of Damascus.

He had a grade point average of 84% in his studies and was one of the top ten students in his year. The course was one of the most respected in the Middle East.



In late August of 2019 Raed was thrilled to be accepted to Ain Sham University in Cairo to complete his dentistry studies. But there is a huge financial burden to his studies which he cannot meet alone.  As a foreign student he must pay high fees and he will also need to find additional financial support as he is the principal breadwinner of his family. (Raed's wife, a qualified architect, has found work in Egypt as an editor of an online Syrian newspaper and provides additional limited family income).

The money raised from this campaign will pay his tuition fees of $7,500 and the remaining $5,500 will provide support including money towards food and monthly rent of $230.

My Reasons For Supporting Raed

I covered the Syrian revolution and subsequent civil war as a reporter. I was deeply affected by what I saw and I developed a great admiration for the courage and decency of ordinary Syrians like Raed. 
 


Many charities are doing great work supporting millions of refugee Syrians but it is very improbable that any of these international charities would be able to give Raed the particular support he needs.

For me this is a chance to repay some of a debt I owe to Raed, and many people like him who helped me down the years in the Middle East. These people often took huge risks. 
I hope that I will be able to call on your support to make the difference that will give Raed the opportunities that have been denied to him.


Update: 23rd September 2019...

Dear Supporters,

Thank you, every one of you, for your extraordinary generosity to this ‘Just Giving’ page. We’ve been able to raise all the money we aimed for a few weeks ago (so please do not contribute further money).

Many people have given startling sums, some of whom are completely unknown to me. Many others donated anonymously. The reason, I assume, is that like me you believed in the cause. It has been astonishing.

For my part I undertook the back-to-back 10kilometre swimming races I’d promised. They hurt a lot (see picture below). For those who want to see the results, they can be found here… http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/dart-10k-2019-event-report/(the Saturday and Sunday results links is towards the bottom of the page).

I came respectively 175th and 131st out of the 755 swimmers on each day. There were 40 of us who did the race twice.

In the coming weeks I will send confirmation that Raed has been able to start his studies in Egypt.