Prince William was so impressed by the record-breaking fundraising efforts of a west London Muslim centre on behalf of earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria that he joked he would like to recruit them.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were at the centre in Hayes to thank those involved in aid and fundraising efforts following the earthquakes which killed more than 50,000 people.
As they arrived the Disaster Emergency Committee said that the Turkey-Syria appeal had raised £121 million since it was launched a month ago.
At the Hayes centre lead fundraiser Zia Rehman said they had broken their own record over 30 years of fundraising for different causes. “For this, we broke the record,” he said after speaking to the couple. “Within two hours we were able to raise £18,000. Normally it is anything between £10,000 and £12,000. But this time the community came forward amazingly. Altogether we have raised £30,000 for Turkey and Syria.”
He added: “They appreciated our work. And William said he would like to recruit us for the fundraising.”
The prince told Rehman: “It is amazing. About £100 million has been raised in the first two weeks.”
He asked: “When you do this community fund raising, what are you saying to the community? A lot of people have got relatives in some of these areas?”
Rehman told him: “We have a mixed community. When we fund raise, it is not only for the Muslims. When we have a cause, the community will just come forward.”
The princess said: “It shows the strength of the community when you are coming together and supporting each other.”
The couple met Shahida Bhatti, 65, who told them that last week she did a 10-mile run with her husband to raise money for the appeal.
It has been a month since earthquakes claimed over 50,000 lives in Turkey and Syria, and 18 million people live in the affected areas.
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The princess said: “How did you find that? Was it OK? You must be very fit.”
She added: “It is sad that there is a need to do fundraising like this.” But what communities like this one were doing was “amazing”, she said.
Ms Bhatti said afterwards: “My husband did it in one and half hours. But I did it in two and a half because I’m a bit slow. Hyde Park is too big!”
Malen Alhousseiny, response manager with Age International, told the couple it was the worst crisis he had been involved in. “They have lost their lives, their homes, their loved ones, their pension as well.”
William asked about the long-term mental health needs of the earthquake survivors, and about how effective efforts were in getting aid to all parts of Turkey and Syria. He said: “I bet it’s quite a large area, as well as all the other barriers you have to compete with. Two countries on the border, it’s not easy.”
Salah Aboulgasem, an aid worker with Islamic Relief who spent time in both Turkey and Syria, told him that in the first few days aid workers were going out when it was -9C at night. “People were struggling. It was really tough.”
Because of the problems in getting aid to Syria, people were trying to free people trapped in collapsed buildings with hammers and bare hands, he said. “They were hearing voices underneath and hammering the concrete. You’re working, and you know you are not going to achieve anything, but you continue to do so.”
He told the story of a nine-year-old girl who was rescued from a building in Syria. “There was jubilation,” he said. She was put into an ambulance, and the first medical assessment was carried. They wanted to take her to proper medical facilities, but for 45 minutes the road was blocked because of the lack of coordination. “She died in the ambulance.”
Mr Aboulgasem described how he met a nine-year-old child in Syria who had not bothered to get out of bed when the earthquake struck. When asked why not, they replied: “I thought it was another air strike.”
He said: “How can we allow that… where children think air strikes are normal?”
Later the couple tried joined two schoolgirls in making paper cranes. Dila Haya, 14, and Lina Alkutubi, 15, made 700 cranes - a symbol of hope - as part of a fundraising effort by Waldegrave School in Twickenham which raised £10,000.
Dila told them: “It is really important to fold cranes together, because it means that the more people working together, the more power they have.”
William joked that his was “more like a digger”, then looked at Kate’s effort and said: “Yours has got proper aeroplane wings! It’s a go-faster crane!”
The couple also met six-year-old Jess Jordan from Battersea, who helped raise £50 to help earthquake victims.
The prince asked what she thought they needed help with. To build shelters, she told him.
