UK Charity Commission Registration Number 1120536

Project Gemini

Buying a Toyota Double cab to provide transport for disabled children to enable them to reach the clinic, doctor or hospital and to get to the nursery school.

Please scroll down to read earlier reports

September 2009

Experience has shown us that a mini-bus would not really be suitable for our needs. It would be excellent for transporting children along the made-up roads but would be fairly useless for dealing with the rough tracks that lead through some of the more remote villages. Also, we need to be able to get transport wheelchairs and deliver food parcels. We considered a Toyota truck which would be ideal for deliveries but useless for getting children to the clinic or the nursery school. A compromise would be a Toyota Double Cab. Although this is still beyond our means and we have no option but to hire a service car which has no seat belts and has a doorless opening at the rear, we have managed to put aside about 50% of the cost and we are hoping to have the remainder of the finance by the start of 2010.

March 2009

The drastic fall in the value of sterling over the last few months has delayed our plans to buy a mini bus for the new clinic and one for the Good Samaritan Home. This project will be shelved temporarily but will be put into operation as soon as sterling has recovered. Although it might not reach the value that it had in 2008 it should hopefully rise above the very low value that it has now.

November 2008

We do not have sufficient funds to be able to buy a new vehicle but we do have sufficient to look for a second-hand vehicle which is in good condition that we could purchase. Since the new clinic opened on the west bank we have become aware of the plight of some children in the remoter villages around Luxor and their need for physiotherapy treatment so the need for transport of our own became more urgent than ever.

Also, we are trying to buy a second-hand mini-bus for the Good Samaritan Home and hope to have sufficient funds for this by Easter. However, this is only achievable with your help.

September 2008

Luxor’s main mode of public transport is a mini-bus or a service car and which one you use depends of where you are and where you are going. Mini buses nip around central Luxor in a constant stream and the cost of going anywhere is 35 piastras which is about 4 pence in UK currency. These buses have only just been introduced on the west bank where the main mode of transport is a brightly painted service car which is a converted Toyota truck.

Luxor, Egypt, is not particularly friendly for the disabled as kerbs are high, roads have numerous holes and bumps and there are steps everywhere. Getting from A to B involves getting in and out of these buses where there are high steps and little room to manoeuvre. There are no lift platforms or wide doorways that will accommodate wheelchairs.

As our projects have developed, and with the opening of the new clinic on the west bank, the need for transport that can carry wheelchairs is vital. We are aiming first to have an adapted dual purpose min-bus on the west bank to bring children to the clinic and the nursery school and then another on the east bank which can be used both by the Good Samaritan Home to bring their children to and from the Home and their school and by Karnak Charity Hospital so that children who need treatment can be brought to the centre there.

The buses would not have to be new but they would have to be in good order and would need adapting so that they are easier to get in and out of and so that there is sufficient room for disabled passengers. This is not overly expensive and with your support we might be able to buy the first one early in 2009.

Please contribute to the Little Stars Trust Fund and help us get these buses for the children. Thank you.