Subject: Negative travel advice, on behalf of the board of VVL

Schalkhaar, januari 12, 2024

We are sorry

to have to disappoint you with regard to your plans for a future veterans' trip with us to Lebanon.

Events in the Middle East have moved quickly. The situation is horrific for many people and still shows no sign of improvement. As the board of Veterans for Lebanon, we are saddened to see innocent people in different countries bearing the brunt of violence. For their sake, we can only hope that it won't escalate further and that peace will return to the region as soon as possible.
Lebanon has enjoyed relative calm in recent years, which made the return trips a great experience for us and our fellow travellers.
This was evident on each visit, not only for us, but also for the locals.

Wherever we went on each of our trips, we were welcomed with enthusiasm, open arms and beautiful words of gratitude and fond memories.

The situation in Lebanon is now so uncertain. Sadly, it has now become impossible to travel.
We did not expect this new reality before October 2023. However, the situation has now caught up with us. We have no choice but to cancel all planned trips. At the end of October 2023, we still hoped to make the two postponed trips in spring 2024, but now we see that this is absolutely impossible. This group of travellers have now been informed.

The safety and security of all travellers has always been at the forefront of every trip and will continue to be so in the future. Only when peace is restored can we consider whether travel to Lebanon is possible. That could mean not being able to go at all in 2024. Every trip requires a long period of preparation, and we will only be able to start doing that when it is as safe to travel as it was before the 7th of October 2023.
Keeping the current waiting lists and moving forward is not desirable for anyone, as there can be a lot of change in people's schedules in the space of a year. We will therefore be deleting all of the existing waiting lists and deleting all of your details.

As soon as we are in a position to organise trips again, we will post information on our website and on our Facebook page. Our advice is to keep an eye on these pages for updates.
Hopefully this is enough information for you and we hope that we can meet again in the future in preparation for a special trip to a safe Lebanon.

Kind regards,

Jeannet Kleine Schaars
Secretary VVL