Fund-raiser for friends

A CELEBRATION of Henley’s friendship link with Borama in Somalia will take the form of a fund-raiser this year.

Traditionally residents of the city in the nation’s Awdal region visit to showcase their culture and customs with singing and dancing.

But this has been deemed inappropriate this year after a tropical cyclone devastated the area in May.

Up to 60 people were killed, livestock was drowned and crops, homes and infrastructure were destroyed.

Next Saturday the Samason’s Relief charity, which was set up by Somali refugees living in the UK, will have displays in Market Place and Mill Meadows with information about the cyclone and will carry out a collection from 2pm to 5pm.

Borama is on the western boundary of the former British protectorate of Somaliland, now the unofficial republic of Somaliland.

Brigadier Malcolm Page, who lives in Ancastle Green, Henley, founded the Henley Borama Friendship Association in 1983.