
Report of the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Welfare Programmes
Brigadier John King MBE - 2014
Sepoy Fakhruddin joined the British Indian Army on 21
March 1942 at the age of 17 years and worked in the Motor Transport section of
the 13th Lancers. He served in Calcutta,
Italy and Singapore. He was captured by
the Japanese and served for a short time as a POW. He says that many POW Indian Army soldiers
died at Hiroshima when the atom bomb was dropped. In 1947 he joined the
Pakistan Armed Forces before being discharged in 1959 but called up for service
during the 2 wars against India in 1965 and 1971. He says he had the honour of guarding
Mountbatten, Viceroy of India, on 14th August
1947 during a visit. He never married and his parents and siblings were killed
in the 1947 partition riots so has no relations to look after him. He lives in
destitution in the Sultanabad slums and is kept alive with a meal a day from
RCEL and a small pension from the Pakistan Armed Forces Board which provides
for a small room, giving him a roof over his head.
Sepoy
Fakhruddin is just one of the 11,671 ex-servicemen, women and widows that we
assisted in 2014; this is a 4% overall reduction in relation to the numbers
supported directly by RCEL funds and our Agency work (disbursed on behalf of
other charities) in 2013. However, we
have seen an increase in the number of RCEL SCOWP beneficiaries as a result of
more accurate information and data from Burma and improved transportation in
Malawi where an additional 70 veterans have been identified. Our global
distribution last year exceeded £1.74M; this included over £817k distributed
on behalf of other military charities as Agency work; an increase of over 6% compared
to 2013 which is a trend we are seeing year on year. The Royal Canadian Legion supported a further
14 Caribbean member organisations with £125,100 in similar welfare, medical and
administrative support; this generous support enables RCEL to focus our welfare
support to other parts of the World. We
are also very grateful to the Returned and Services League of Australia who
distributed over £25,000 directly to expatriate Commonwealth and British ex-servicemen
and women.
Each
year I allocate funds to our SCOWP reserve which is to be utilised in the event
of any unforeseen or emergency situations.
In 2014 we were asked to provide support to our organisation in Sierra
Leone as a result of the terrible situation created by the Ebola crisis. Unfortunately, we lost 5 World War 2 veterans
to this dreadful disease but RCEL was able to immediately send financial
support that provided essential supplies to our beneficiaries, particularly
those who are living in isolated areas; we must also gratefully acknowledge the
additional financial support provided by The Royal British Legion and ABF The
Soldiers’ Charity.
During
the year, HQ staff visited 10 member organisations around the World; these
visits are detailed elsewhere within this report. These visits are extremely important in
allowing my committee to be fully informed when making grant allocation
decisions at our annual meeting in April and at year end reviews. It is reassuring to have accurate
on-the-ground information, particularly when considering requests for specific
projects. One such project was a request
from the Sri Lanka Ex-Serviceman’s Association to provide support for the
renovation of the Bolagala Home near Colombo.
Controller Finance, Colonel Nigel Dransfield, visited Sri Lanka in July
and went to the Home which exists to care for elderly veterans and is currently
occupied by 25; 8 of those 25 are RCEL beneficiaries and a grant of £3,333 was
awarded which amounted to a third of the cost of renovation. The Controller Welfare’s visit to the
Caribbean in January also included attendance at the Royal Canadian Legion
Conference held in Barbados which was attended by the majority of Caribbean
organisations to discuss welfare issues and the Future Roles study.
I
would like to acknowledge yet again the tremendous support that has been
provided by Blind Veterans UK. In 2014
they provided support to 302 veterans in a number of our countries including
Burma, Cameroon, India, Somaliland and Uganda, to name a few.
There
is little change with the situation in Zimbabwe and RCEL continues to support
over 350 Rhodesian African Rifles veterans who benefit from grants totalling
£52,000 which are distributed through the good offices of ZANE. In addition, this wonderful organisation also
disbursed over £264,000 as part of our Agency work on behalf of 27 UK
charities. A poignant reminder of the Zimbabwe
cases we deal with is included within this report.
Burma
has been in focus recently and a more detailed report will be included next
year. However, we are seeing an increase
in the number of eligible beneficiaries in that country which is as a result of
improved co-ordination and communication in-country, plus the assistance provided
by Help 4 Forgotten Allies (H4FA) and the British Embassy. An interesting statistic has emerged from our
work in this country that focusses the mind and demonstrates what can be
achieved; the UN World Food Programme has identified the average amount of rice
required per person per month; that is 7kg or 84kg per year. The price of rice is approximately US$25 per 50kg;
therefore, a minimum annual income of US$42 is required to provide a very basic
‘meal a day’. RCEL are able to provide
an annual grant of US$70 to our veterans, thus covering the cost of a meal a
day at the moment. However, the cost of
living is escalating and will no doubt reach a level, as it has done in all our
other countries, when we are unable to cover that basic cost.
For
RCEL to continue to provide financial support to our veterans and widows in the
future and, something that is as equally important, some dignity in their later
lives, we need the continued support from all of you; those large organisations
who have provided so much regular support in the past and the individual donors
who so generously give to those who are in desperate need. Your continued support is critical.
A
Tale from Zimbabwe – Doug Dabbs 1922 – 2015
Our representative in Zimbabwe reported the sad news of the death of Doug Dabbs at the age of 92; he had been known to RCEL for many years and featured in our Annual Report in 2012. This is his story and highlights the debt of gratitude that we owe our veterans:
Doug was born in Kent in September 1922, the son of a First World War RAF pilot. He was too young to join up at the outbreak of war but, when Churchill announced the formation of local defence volunteers, Doug borrowed a pistol from his father and signed up. As soon as he turned 18 he joined the RAF to train as a navigator. Unfortunately he suffered an attack of polio which put him in hospital for several weeks and meant he could not complete his induction into the RAF. Undeterred, he asked to be transferred to the army and after eight months of training was posted as a driver mechanic to 144th battalion of the Royal Armoured Corps.
In June 1944 Doug crossed the Channel on D+2 with the RAC, landed on Sword Beach and was immediately engaged in fighting around Caen. Soon afterwards, his tank was hit by a shell which penetrated the side and ricocheted around inside killing everyone on board except for Doug. He was soon back in the thick of things with the Royal Tank Regiment and was at the vanguard of the advance across France, Belgium and the Netherlands, finally crossing the Rhine in Spring 1945.
He still has his prayer book for the Service of Thanksgiving on VE Day – May 5th 1945 together with his medals, photographs and other memorabilia. Doug was demobbed in 1946 having continued to serve in Italy and Yugoslavia after the war had officially ended.
Back in England, Doug decided to move to Zambia to join his older brother who had bought a farm out there. Soon he married Val and had four children after moving to Zimbabwe and finally saving enough to buy his own sugar farm in the Lowveld which enabled him to raise and educate his children and make a good living.
In 2002 The Dabbs’ farm came under attack and they were forced to pack up at short notice and move into Harare. Fortunately, they had bought a flat in Mount Pleasant during the good times so had a place to live, but no income meant they went through their savings quickly.
In 2004 Doug applied to RCEL for assistance and the quarterly grants from the RAFBF and RAC War Memorial Benevolence Fund have been quite literally a life-saver for them. As this generation of men and women pass on, it is good for us to remember that many of the freedoms the Western World enjoys today are due in large part to the sacrifices made by them and it is right that we honour and care for them – they are a special group of people and we are privileged to have been able to hear their stories and be a channel for them to receive assistance.
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