Volunteers clean and rebuild Benghazi

Описание: (15 Sep 2017) LEADIN
Volunteers and young people are helping with the clean up of Benghazi, as they feel the authorities are not doing enough.
The Benghazi Dak Dhaoui campaign is self funded and calls on people from the city to participate.
STORYLINE
The ruined buildings of Benghazi.
Conflict between the Libyan national army and armed groups raged in the city in 2014.
The fighting took a heavy toll on the city and its infrastructure.
But things are slowly starting to get better thanks to volunteers who are cleaning up public gardens, streets and buildings across the city.
Benghazi's Dak Dhaoui campaign (which means "Benghazi your lights are brightening") launched on 22 July 2017 and is still going strong.
According to its organisers, no government authorities have helped them significantly.
However, thanks to the goodwill and hard work of local people progress is now being made to rebuild the city.
"Thanks to God, I saw the team work today after we launched the #Benghazi_Dak_Dhaoui. We saw the flow of people and the flow of charities and institutions in Benghazi, we saw the Red Crescent and the Benghazi Club," explains social activist Jamal Al-Misrati who's involved in the campaign."
"We love to take people out of the atmosphere of war and to see the beautiful Benghazi return and the return of street lights back again," he adds.
Volunteers, particularly from the city's youth, work in the morning and evening to clean up the city.
Within just few weeks of launching, the campaign had succeeded in cleaning and removing grass, repairing trees, maintaining water lines and lighting, painting the Benghazi Scouts Theatre and maintaining the administrative buildings.
At the same time work began to repair and maintain damaged houses in other recently liberated neighbourhoods.
"This campaign is attended by all the people of Benghazi, from institutions, individuals, young people of Benghazi, to the municipalities of Benghazi. From Tibesti hotel, anyone who wants to participate will be welcomed. The campaign doesn't have any specific person's name behind it and it's not under the sponsorship of any particular person," says Mohamed Ajouda, another social activist.
Organisations that have put forward volunteers include the Ahli and Naser sports clubs, the College of Engineering and Information, the College of Literature's English Department, the Boy Scouts and the Red Crescent.
Youssef Al-Obaidi is a volunteer architect and says:
"There are families that really need anyone to help them out. We have no problem in helping and we have many young people who can do good and want to do so. They only need someone to organise them or direct them or show them the way they work."
He adds: "We do not say that all reconstruction has to be voluntary, but seeing a person in need does make us go volunteering and helping, because life will continue in this way."

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