Creative Trail
Jewellers come together in aid of refugees
Orkney jewellery designer Alison Moore is one of more than 100 jewellers from the UK and USA to donate work to a special Facebook auction in aid of refugees around the world.
The Auction for Aid gets underway on Monday, 18 September, and runs until Sunday, 24 September. It follows a similar auction held last year, which raised almost £25,000 for the global refugee cause.
Proceeds from this year's auction will go to two organisations – Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to preventing loss of life to refugees in distress at sea, and UK based NGO, Help Refugees.
Orkney jewellery designer Alison Moore
Spearheading the auction is Leeds based jeweller, Ghazal Ghahri-Saremi, of Soremi Jewellery.
"I was deeply affected by the tragic images of the little Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, whose body was found washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015," said Ghazal. "Whilst it was too late to help Alan, I wanted to try and do something positive for the organisations at the frontline of this global crisis and that's how the auction came together.
"I asked a few jeweller friends if they would be interested in donating and it quickly became clear I wasn't alone in how I felt about the terrible injustice of the refugee crisis. News spread very quickly within our community and jewellers began sending me emails asking how to get involved. Everyone donating pieces to the auction is trying to use their skills in an effort to effect positive change, so we really hope the public will get behind us."
Ghazal explained that half of the funds raised this year would go to Help Refugees' Baytna Centre in Northern Greece. The centre, run by Help Refugees' partners, the Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI), provides life-changing psychosocial support and primary school education for 0-6 year old refugee children. The remaining 50-per-cent of the auction proceeds will go to MOAS, currently assisting the persecuted Rohingya people in Myanmar.
Ghazal added: "We were delighted with the first auction we staged, in 2015, but last year's surpassed our expectations again, raising almost £25,000. With more jewellers taking part this year, including some of our friends from the USA, we're hoping to better that total."
The pink tourmaline Jorinda ring donate by Alison Moore for the auction
In addition to work by Alison Moore Designs, the auction - hosted on the Auction For Aid Facebook page - will feature donations from jewellers such as Polly Wales, Margery Hirschey, Melissa Joy Manning and Jo Hayes Ward. Jewellery for all budgets will be available.
Alison Moore said: "All of us who took part in last year's auction were thrilled to see so much raised, but we know we can do even better this year. With a fresh crisis developing in Myanmar and ongoing humanitarian tragedies around the world, we must do all we can to maintain awareness of the plight of refugees and continue to contribute as much as possible to the organisations working to help them."
The Digital Orkney project has been part financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 Programme.
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