Have you heard of the excellent charity Give us Time yet?
We are very pleased to announce that RDO members have once again proven their charitable mindset and commitment to worthy causes by supporting the excellent Give us Time charity. Throughout the world there are so many people in need and causes that are worthy of attention such as global hunger or the fight for human rights. These issues gain huge amounts of attention with a whole host of different charities aiming to solve these problems. One issue that doesn’t always get the recognition that it deserves though, is that of the stress that hard working military service personnel and their families face when the time comes for these personnel to return home.
It is often much more difficult than many people would imagine for someone returning from military work overseas to their home and to start leading a ‘normal’ family life again. Often these individuals spend months away from their families and when they return the dynamic has changed considerably. This can also put a major strain not just on the returning individual, but their families too, who also have to readjust to the change brought to the household. Life back at home is very different to what service personnel face when they are away, and readjustment can take time.
This is why Give us Time was set up back in 2012 by Dr Liam Fox MP, who realised what an unrecognised and serious issue this transition period back to normal life could be. As well as during his time as Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Fox also spent time as an Army medic, so has had first time experience of these difficulties. This is a much larger issue than many people would imagine as since 2001, more than 220,000 British forces personnel have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a result of combat operations, up to 75,000 of these service personnel have experienced physical or psychological damage, and this figure doesn’t include those yet to be diagnosed with PTSD or other issues related to these wars. The number of people affected is also much larger than this because there are parents, children, husbands, wives and many other family members who have to adjust to their loved ones returning home.
Give us Time was set up with the important aim of providing families with much needed time to reconnect. Holiday companies or private owners have been generously donating holiday time which is then matched with British soldiers who are in need of quality time with their families in order to reconnect. Any service personnel that has been on tour since 2005 is eligible for these holidays. In addition, any families of those personnel who have been discharged through injury or who lost their lives in active operations since 2001 are also eligible.
RDO members CLC World, Diamond Resorts International, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket and Silverpoint have all generously donated holiday time to military service personnel and their families. It is great to see our members involved in this very worthy issue which often remains sadly overlooked. This is especially a shame considering these men and women have been bravely serving their country overseas, but become forgotten about when they are back in Britain.
Give us Time helps to serve these courageous individuals in order to rebuild broken family ties and allow them to fully readjust to life back at home. This is beneficial for them, their partners and children and other family members which is also a huge benefit to society as a whole. Service personnel have often suffered from severe trauma so this charity serves as a tremendous aid to helping them recover. It is brilliant that RDO members are supporting this worthy cause!
Here is an example of 15 military personnel and their families (46 people in total), enjoying a fabulous free week of holiday stay at CLC Kusadasi Golf & Spa resort on the Aegean Coast in Turkey:
You can also find out about when military personnel and their families were invited by Diamond Resorts International for a free skiing holiday at the beautiful Balkan Jewel Resort in Bulgaria in this blog post. There is also another trip planned to Bulgaria this year, to help more military families in need.
To find out more about Give us Time and how you can support this excellent charity, please take a look at their website: https://giveustime.org.uk/
You can also keep up to date with them on Facebook and Twitter.