A glimpse into the life of a Syrian refugee

Hundreds of refugees from Syria making the long walk to safety in Jordan, one long jagged line stretching out into the open desert.

They carried teapots and tiny gas canisters, shopping bags filled with clothes and overstuffed bundles of blankets balanced on their heads. Many held jerry cans, once full with water, now dangling empty.

The refugees came from the outskirts of Damascus, walking for days in order to escape the ugly civil war that has engulfed their country for the past three years.

Their destination, like so many thousands before them, is the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. The numbers are staggering: Syrian refugees are now estimated to make up 10% of Jordan’s population.

The population demographics in Zaatari are skewed towards women and children but also a surprising number of elderly residents. Consider these statistics: More than half (54%) of the camp’s residents are under the age of 17. 42% of families in the camp are led by a female head of household. 3% are more than 60-years old.

Nothing can take away from the pain and loss of being a refugee. But everyone we met had a remarkable story of resilience and determination. Zaatari is a remarkable place because its residents are building a strong community out of what little they have. They build homes, invest in businesses, plant vegetable gardens and paint works of art. But every single Syrian refugee I spoke to said the same thing: if the war stopped today, I would be home tomorrow.

[CNN]

Malnourished but defiant Syrians

As nearly 600 days under siege sap the life and dignity out of the Old District in the Syrian city of Homs — leaving malnourished men with legs like noodles and soot-stained children to dig through homes turned into rubble for bits of firewood — diplomats in picturesque Geneva bicker over aid.

“The situation is unbearable and inhuman. Food, there is none. Medical supplies, there is none. Milk for children, there is none. It is beyond words.” Mohammed Abu Yahay tells CNN through a crackly Skype connection.

The Geneva peace talks seemed to matter little to residents living on perpetually empty bellies who demanded all parties put aside their differences to break the almost two-year siege of Homs rather than agree to a temporary solution from a reluctant regime.

The United States blamed the Syrian government for the dire situation, accusing it of waging a “kneel or starve campaign.” As the bitter winter cold retains its hold on the restive city, activists and residents say starvation and the lack of basic medical care claim lives regularly as Syrian troops and some opposition forces prevent the delivery of aid, according to a report from Human Rights Watch last month.

Tree leaves, grass, olives and stale grain are all that’s on the menu at many homes in the old districts of Homs, where many residents say they struggle to get just one meal a day on the table while loved ones with preventable diseases languish in a makeshift medical clinic with “medieval health care.”

“The world must help us; they can’t watch us drown in a sea of suffering, pain and death and do nothing after more than one and a half years of being under siege” the Rev. Frans, a Dutch Jesuit and longtime Syrian resident, said in broken Arabic on social media.

“I think that there is a lack of pressure from the international community on the barbaric regime. It is inhuman that they are fighting us over a loaf of bread. Cutting of water, electricity, and preventing any aid organization from entering. This situation reflects poorly on the international community to help these besieged areas,” Dr. Abo Ramez said.

[CNN]

 

Syrian children suffer while world shrugs

The world has devoted a great deal of diplomatic energy to securing Syria’s chemical weapons. It has yet to do the same for securing Syria’s children.

Refugees fleeing the conflict, most to Syria’s overwhelmed neighbors Jordan and Lebanon, top a whopping 2 million. Some U.N. officials expect that number to climb as high as 4 million in 2014.

More than 1.1 million of these refugees are younger than 18. Indeed, Syria’s youngest citizens are paying dearly for a war they did not create, one that is laying waste to their present and their future.

Three out of four Syrian children “have lost a close friend or family member in their country’s ongoing conflict” and “many have witnessed violence,” notes the International Rescue Committee. Charities such as IRC and Mercy Corps working with Syria’s children tell of young people isolated, lonely and struggling with the impossible task of coming to terms with all that they have seen and lost.

“If we do not act quickly, a generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in November when releasing a report on the grim future facing Syria’s children.

“A grave consequence of the conflict is that a generation is growing up without a formal education,” the report said. “More than half of all school-aged Syrian children in Jordan and Lebanon are not in school. In Lebanon, it is estimated that some 200,000 school-aged Syrian refugee children could remain out of school at the end of the year.” They join 25 million kids of primary-school-age around the world out of school because of war.

Low educational attainment is among the strongest predictors of violence. Anyone hoping for a safer, more secure world had better start with educating children.

And yet until now, the international community’s reaction to the escalating death count and the rising number of hungry, homeless and displaced children has fallen somewhere between a shrug and a sigh.

This leaves children to pay the price. And so will the rest of us, eventually, if nothing is done to help a lost generation find a way to a more secure future.

[CNN]