Dear Sir,
Old and used furniture and domestic appliances are often thrown away as trash. But most of these items are still usable. Some of them may  need only minor repairs. These items are disposed off by municipal authorities.
In countries like Pakistan and Iran, there are places where  clothes, household items, etc are placed for the poor and needy people.
These places,  known as “Walls of Hope”,  are gaining popularity.
In Qatar, there are some low-income expatriates who support their families back home with the money earned here. They  spend very little on themselves. Some of them are seen collecting the thrown-away stuff for their requirements.
I would like to suggest the establishment of  “donation stores” where people can leave items like clothes, household appliances, toys and food, etc that they don’t require but are still in fair condition.
These items can either be given away at a nominal price or free for those who are in  need of them.
M Khalid Kamal 
Villa-20, Pink Villas 
Ain Khalid, Doha 

Improvement in traffic flow

Dear Sir,

The morning traffic had often been a nightmare for commuters using the Jaidah flyover and the Industrial Area flyover roundabout near the Safari hypermarket. But now thanks to the Road and Traffic Department, the bottlenecks on these spots have been eased by the installation of traffic lights at junctions nearest to them.
Further, it seems authorities have made significant progress in the operation of the public transport service, Mowasalat, these days. There are now no sudden cancellations of trips and diversion of routes which were frequent before. All public transport buses these days show the destination with luminescent signboards unlike before.
I would like to thanks  authorities for these actions that are quite helpful to commuters.
Asaf Ali 
PO Box 40523 
Doha 

Refugee crisis

Dear Sir, 

Reports on the rising number of refugees meeting their death while struggling to find a place to live have become commonplace. 
The crisis in Syria has worsened the global refugee crisis.  
Some of the European countries have been  generous in welcoming thousands of these refugees who have to leave their homeland in wake of unrest there. It is high time to find a tangible  solution to the ongoing disasters in some of the Middle Eastern countries that have claimed millions of lives.

Ramachandran Nair
(e-mail address supplied)