Bilal Al Ayoubi uses the power of Rotary to help Syrian refugees.
Bilal Al Ayoubi knows the power of a Rotary connection. At the 2012 Rotary convention in Bangkok, Thailand, he met Greg Garofolo, now president of the Rotary E-Club of New England. After returning home, Al Ayoubi, a senior projects development specialist with the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives, got in touch with Garofolo, a ShelterBox ambassador, to see how they might help the Syrian refugees pouring into Lebanon. Garofolo called on his connections at ShelterBox, which sent a response team within weeks, and Al Ayoubi introduced the organization to local nonprofits that he works with through USAID. They built a network to distribute nearly 1,500 tents and supplies to villages on Lebanon’s border with Syria, some of which have more than doubled in population since the civil war broke out four years ago: A community of 2,000 may now host 2,000 to 3,000 refugees. “Everything is under a huge strain, from waste management to infrastructure to schools,” says Al Ayoubi, who joined Rotaract 11 years ago as a university student. He is bringing Lebanese nationals and Syrian refugees together on committees to address their villages’ needs. “The process is what means a lot to us,” he says. “There is a platform to get people to talk, work together, and see solutions happen.”