Nardeen, a medical interpreter in Illinois, gets the opportunity to work with refugees from the Middle East but because her interactions with them are restricted to just interpreting, she has no time or place to give any personal advice or words of encouragement while on the job. The desire to work more closely with refugees and provide some emotional support left her wondering what other ways she could get involved. When she heard about a GAiN LIFE Team trip to Lebanon to work with a local partner helping Syrian and Iraqi refugees, she knew she had to consider it.
“It was on my heart to do something [more] with refugees but I didn’t know where to start, when to go [or where]. So when my cousin told me that she’s going [on the Lebanon trip], I felt like God was preparing something and He already has prepared my heart before,” Nardeen explained.
With six participants and two leaders, the team spent two weeks working with a local partner who runs programs for refugees in the community, including 42 refugee children. Participants got to help with tutoring, cleaning out an old basement (to be used as a clothing depot for refugee families), leading chapel, cooking lunches and providing much-needed relief to the local staff who seemed to work endlessly. They also had the opportunity to visit some of the families of the children, as well as join local staff to deliver hot meals to families who could not afford ingredients to cook.
Something that made an impact on Nardeen was visiting a refugee camp in Bekaa Valley. The informal, overcrowded camp where families share tents with other refugee families highlighted the poverty that refugees are living in. While they managed to escape a war zone, many still live in inadequate housing and lack enough food or heat during the winter.
“When we went there one of the ladies invited us to her tent. This lady was so thankful. She invited us and we sat on the mattresses around the tent and she was trying to make it as presentable as possible. Cardboard covered with a little thin cloth just to make it feel like home. So we were sitting around and chatting with them about their life and how they left Syria, some of the way was on foot.”
With nothing more than a stuffed toy to gift to the children and open ears to listen, Nardeen felt she did not have much to give, especially after hearing personal experiences from the mouths of those who are still living with traumatic memories.
“At the beginning, I felt the need is huge and I felt so humbled,” Nardeen expressed. “Those people really came out of war and distress and lost loved ones, so I don’t really have much to offer. But what I saw from them, the appreciation, the gratitude, the openness to share about their life, made me feel like it’s worth it. It’s worth it to come all the way to be here and just listen. Even to give words of encouragement, anything helps them. They were really happy about us being there and travelling all the way just to come and share with them and listen to them.”
Despite a lack of relatable life experience, the LIFE Team’s presence was invaluable to the refugees they served and spent time with.
“The families are really broken so we felt so small to be doing anything [for them],” Nardeen said. “I felt like the Lord used us even if we have nothing. Even if we feel that we cannot give anything, He showed us how just giving attention and listening to their stories and praying for them – it [means] the world to them.”
Now that she has been home for a while, she is already seeing how the people she encountered in Lebanon have influenced the way she lives her everyday life, including at work.
“I interpret a lot for refugees when they come for screenings, depression screenings and all that. I started to look at it differently. I started to just imagine the world that they were in and the situations they were in and just pray for them, even if not with them, but just pray for them.”
With Lebanon being her first mission trip, Nardeen feels the experience opened her eyes to the reality of what refugees go through and how even something as little as showing care and concern can be a blessing.
“People [you help] will appreciate it so much. It’s going to change a lot of perspectives, a lot of priorities in your life. It will be so different hearing from somebody [who is living the life you see on the news]. It’s so different to be there and visit their houses and sit there and listen to their stories. You feel so involved and your heart will be there. It’s a really life-changing experience.”
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In 2017, the Syrian Civil War entered its seventh year. Bombs hit our local partner in Syria.
Although there was some damage to the building, nobody was injured.
“Last Friday, two bombs exploded in front of the building. I was near the window and shrapnel went through the two windows,” recalled the partner. “The windows and aluminum frames were damaged. Bombs were everywhere.”
It is under these conditions that our Syrian partner works and continues to bring hope to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the country. The ongoing crisis continues and the numbers are staggering. Since 2011, almost 5 million people have been forced to flee Syria to another country, while over 6.3 million people are displaced.1 In the last six years, a total of 96,000 civilians were casualties of this civil war.2
Thousands of Syrians live on the edge. Bombs continue to go off and people still struggle to find their next meal and basic medicine.
Trapped within their country, they look for hope. Our mission is to demonstrate God’s love, in word and deed, to those who are hurting and in need.
Bags of Blessings
Chased out by unemployment and gunfire, another Syrian family was forced to leave their home. They left behind loved ones, possessions, and important government documents that would have allowed them to get aid from most churches and charitable organizations. Almost overnight, they became part of the 6.3 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Syria. As refugees in a new city, they had no friends or relatives and no way to get support, until a neighbour guided them to a centre run by our local partner. There they were able to receive aid despite their lack of documentation. Though it may seem simple, our policy of giving aid to the needy, regardless of background or situation, is often as meaningful to those receiving it as the aid itself.
Along with our local partner, we were able to show the love of God to IDPs through the Bags of Blessings program, a monthly package of food rations designed to last for one month. While people initially come to receive the food and non-food items in the bags, the people return because they have gained so much more.
Simple comforts, like blankets and hygiene products, were also provided to children and families who couldn’t afford to buy them, especially as they enter the winter season. Currently, we have the privilege of providing 1,000 Bags of Blessings each month, thereby providing much needed aid to thousands of desperate people in need.
“When we distribute blankets, it gives the children the knowledge that we not only care that they are hungry, but also that they are in good health and they are taken care of.” This deeper care for peoples’ well being is only a small part of the spiritual aid that GAiN and its partner provide. By building friendships with those who are suffering and often alone, the centres provide community to families and individuals who have nowhere else to go. Weekly meetings held for men, women, and children of various age groups are places of emotional and spiritual support, healing, and growth.
The teams at the centres seem to have unending stories of hearts touched and lives changed by the community and hope found at the centres. One team member tells of a woman who regularly sends her grandchildren to the centre. “Mainly in the beginning she sent them for the bag, but she knows us and she talks to people. She’s saying, ‘They have a touch of love. They give. They are generous. They feel with other people.’”
This touch of love goes such a long way. It’s the empathetic aid that brings emotional relief to families in turmoil. Families and individuals in dire need such as
Samira: a mom of two whose husband works every other month. She shares that “if you don’t give us this Bags of Blessings we will die because we don’t have money to buy food. In fact, my daughter is waiting for the bag to do sandwiches for school from the food you send to us.”
Darin: a woman with three children whose husband is working just to cover the rent of the room they are renting it. The only work she can find is cleaning houses and the people are using her and paying only $30 per month, which is nothing for the need they have. She expressed “we are still alive because of the Bags of Blessings you are providing.”
Mary: a lady living with her husband who isn’t working and her son’s family. She receives the Bags of Blessings as the main help for her family.
Samira: a widow who lives with her two sons with their families. The Bags of Blessings feeds almost 20 people in her family.
Each story is of a life that has been impacted due to the Bags of Blessings project.
IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN SHINE LIGHT IN THE FACE OF DEATH AND DIFFICULTY, CLICK HERE.
Sources:
1. UNHCR (bit.ly/syria_regional_response)
2. Newsweek (bit.ly/newsweek_syria)
30 October 2017 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or D’aesh) may be largely pushed out of Syria’s Raqqa governorate, but after years of oppression and nearly a year of intense fighting – marked recently by heavy airstrikes – humanitarian needs will continue to be large for some time, the top United Nations relief official told the Security Council Monday.
“Since the beginning of the anti-ISIL offensive in November last year, airstrikes and clashes have resulted in more than 436,000 people being displaced from Raqqa to 60 different locations, including in neighbouring governorates,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said briefing the Council via videoconference from Amman, Jordan.
“One conclusion is obvious: the impact of the Syria crisis continues to be profound.”
Expressing deep worry about the impact of fighting and airstrikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Raqqa governorate, with scores of civilians reportedly killed in recent months, he said he is also concerned for the safety and protection of civilians at risk from unexploded ordinance throughout Raqqa city, particularly those trying to return to their homes.
“Despite the directive issued by local authorities for civilians not to return to the city until it is deemed safe, the UN anticipates that people will go back to try to check on and protect their homes and their personal assets,” Mr. Lowcock explained.
Further to the east, in Deir Ez-Zor governorate, heavy fighting and airstrikes continue to result in civilian deaths and injuries. Large-scale displacement also continues, with the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) reporting some 350,000 people displaced since August, including more than 250,000 people in October alone.
As for eastern Ghouta, Mr. Lowcock daily shelling has continued to be reported in recent weeks. Humanitarian access to eastern Ghouta – one of the four de-escalated areas where nearly 95 per cent of Syria’s besieged population lives – has been severely curtailed for months. Since the start of the year 110,000 people have received food assistance, out of an estimated population of nearly 400,000.
“Today the UN and partners delivered food, nutrition and health assistance to 40,000 people, he told the Council, warning however that an alarming number of child malnutrition cases have been recorded there, and more than 400 people with health problems require medical evacuation.
Overall, he said that more than 13 million people inside Syria still need humanitarian assistance. 6.3 million of them are exceptionally vulnerable and in acute need because of displacement, hostilities, and limited access to basic goods and services. “Conflict and violations of international humanitarian law continue to be the principal drivers of humanitarian need, with civilians in many parts of the country enduring massive suffering.”
“Against this background, the UN and our partners continue to implement in Syria one of the largest humanitarian operations in the world,” said Mr. Lowcock who is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, noting, by example that in September, the World Food Programme (WFP) provided food assistance to more than 3.3 million people, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reached over 1.5 million people, and the World health Organization (WHO) reached over 800,000 people.
He also went on to point out that cross-border assistance provided for in last year’s Council resolution 2165 “has been a lifeline,” allowing the UN to reach millions of people in need in northern and southern parts of Syria. On average, aid was delivered to 2.76 million people a month through cross-border operations between January and August of this year.
“Our experience with cross-line operations from within Syria […] leads us to believe that it would be impossible to reach those people in a sustained manner from within Syria. I therefore regard a renewal of resolution 2165 as essential. Millions of people depend on the activities it mandates,” he underscored.
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(Image Source: UNICEF/UN066040/Souleiman)
27 October 2017 – The United Nations human rights chief on Friday called on the parties to the conflict in Syria to allow badly needed food and medical supplies to Eastern Ghouta in rural Damascus, describing the situation of at least 350,000 besieged civilians there as “an outrage.”
“The shocking images of what appear to be severely malnourished children that have emerged in recent days are a frightening indication of the plight of people in Eastern Ghouta, who are now facing a humanitarian emergency,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in a news release from his office (OHCHR).
Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of the nation’s capital, is being considered one of the “de-escalation areas” brokered in May by Iran, Russia and Turkey under the Astana process. However, residential areas, including those areas previously spared attack, are now being hit on an almost daily basis by ground-based strikes by Government forces and their allies.
The UN human rights office has also received reports of armed opposition groups conducting ground-based strikes on Damascus.
Various armed groups controlling the area have restricted the work of humanitarian organisations, and clashes between these groups have for months limited civilians’ freedom of movement within the region.
The UN last reached Eastern Ghouta on 23 September. Between January and September, the Government only accepted 26 per cent of requests to deliver assistance to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
“I remind all parties that the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and may amount to a crime against humanity and/or a war crime,” said Mr. Zeid.
Unidentified attackers reportedly stormed and looted a food warehouse in the Eastern Ghouta town of Hamourya on 19 October. The following day several hundred people allegedly looted a second warehouse in the town – a possible sign of growing desperation.
“If parties to a conflict cannot meet the needs of the population under their control, they must allow and facilitate efforts by impartial humanitarian agencies to provide aid, including by granting them the right of free passage,” he stressed.
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3 October 2017 – Dwindling resources could severely jeopardize efforts to provide refugees and displaced persons across the Middle East with essential winter supplies such as thermal blankets and warm clothing, the United Nations refugee agency has warned.
For many it will be the seventh consecutive winter in displacement, living in tents or in makeshift settlements in near-freezing temperatures.
“We estimate that as many as four million are at extreme risk and need timely and substantial help to properly prepare for the forthcoming winter [and] of these only one in four are likely to get the assistance they need,” said Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), calling for greater funding for the agency’s response plan to ensure help is provided to all in desperate need.
According to estimates, there are nearly 15 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons across the region, in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
With their needs rising significantly during winter due to the harsh conditions, ensuring sufficient funding for UN agency’s Regional Winter Assistance Plan for 2017/2018 (amounting to $245 million but only 26 per cent funded) is critical, the spokesperson noted.
“Without proper help, many refugee families end up being pushed further into debt and come under increased pressure to resort to desperate steps to try to make ends meet. Women and children are especially affected,” Mr. Mahecic added.
Throughout this autumn (September-November), UNHCR plans to provide cash assistance, distribute winter items and invest in preparation, insulation and repairs of shelters, as well as improve drainage in the camps.
With sufficient funding, the Regional Plan will ensure basic winter necessities – including blankets, clothing, tarpaulin and fuel – are provided to refugees and displaced persons. It will also assist those living below the poverty line with a special assistance programme.
More than 50 per cent of the assistance package is scheduled to be delivered in cash which would allow refugees and the internally displaced to address their priorities and meet urgent needs.
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September has been the deadliest month in Syria’s civil war so far this year, a monitoring group has said.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said more than 3,300 people had died in September, including 995 civilians.
Of those civilian deaths, it said about 70% were caused by Russian, Syrian government, or coalition air strikes.
The group bases its casualty reports on information provided by a network of activists in Syria.
It counted 207 children among the civilian dead, along with some 790 pro-government fighters, more than 700 from so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda affiliates, and some 550 rebels.
The SOHR says it is a non-political and independent monitoring group, though it does not publish its methodology or verification process.
Many of the deaths have occurred during the fighting between the country’s multiple factions and IS. But air strikes in Syria have continued as the jihadist group has lost most of its territory in the country.
An alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters has mostly reclaimed the northern city of Raqqa, the group’s former de facto capital.
Its last remaining stronghold in Syria is the province surrounding the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.
Russian air forces are supporting the Syrian military in their attempts to fully retake the city.
A long-running siege of Deir al-Zour was broken by Syrian military forces in early September. In the aftermath, the SOHR said dozens of civilians had been killed in air strikes outside the city.
The Syrian Defence Forces – fighters which oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but are also fighting IS – have also claimed to be hit by Russian and Syrian air strikes, a charge which Russia denies.
And last week, Human Rights Watch said a pair of air strikes by the US-led coalition in March had killed at least 84 civilians.
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(Image Source: Reuters)
24 March 2017 – An estimated 400,000 Iraqi civilians are trapped in Mosul’s Old City as fighting intensifies and people continue to flee, the United Nations refugee agency representative today warned.
“The worst is yet to come,” said Bruno Geddo, the Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Iraq.
Speaking by phone, Mr. Geddo said the fighting in the west has been more intense than in the less densely populated east of the city, where the battle ended in January.
“People are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he added. “There’s fighting shelling, bombing.”
When people try to flee, extremists shoot them. Some have tried to leave during prayers or under cover of fog at first light – but were killed, Mr. Geddo said.
Meanwhile, life in the Old City is becoming impossible with a lack of food, clean water or fuel, Mr. Geddo said.
Meeting with civilians at the UNHCR transit and reception centre at Hammam al-Alil, outside of the city centre, Mr. Geddo said the number of people moving through has “surged” in recent days with up to 12,000 people arriving daily.
Some 340,000 people have been displaced since the fighting in Mosul started last October. Of those, about 72,000 have returned home.
The UN representative called on all those fighting to allow civilians to leave areas of conflict for safer zones, and no one should be forced to come back home.
“Liberating Mosul is necessary but not sufficient,” Mr. Geddo said. “We equally have to get it right with the protection of civilians and in the humanitarian response.”
(Source)
(Photo Credit: UNHCR/Ivor Prickett)
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14 March 2017 – The conflict in Syria is the “worst man-made disaster the world has seen since World War II,” the United Nations human rights chief today said, calling for an end to all tortures, executions and unfair trials, and at the very least, for the names and localities of people held in detention or information about where they are buried.
“Today, in a sense the entire country has become a torture-chamber: a place of savage horror and absolute injustice,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told a high-level panel discussion at the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Syria.
The entire conflict is “this immense tidal wave of bloodshed and atrocity,” Mr. Zeid said.
The High Commissioner said that he had recently met with a group of Syrian women whose relatives had been detained or are simply missing. Their relatives are among the “countless people” in Syria to suffer arbitrary detention, torture, kidnapping, and enforced disappearance.
The Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has been refused access to the country, and no international human rights observers are admitted to check on sites where “very probably tens of thousands of people are currently held,” Mr. Zeid said.
Despite a limited access, OHCHR is working alongside the Commission of Inquiry to collect and analyze evidence, building up the basis for criminal proceedings against individual perpetrators.
In his statement, Mr. Zeid noted that the conflict started with torture which spawned “rebel movements, fueling violent extremists and setting the stage for a regional and proxy war.”
Nearly 6.3 million people have been displaced and an additional 4.9 million people – mostly women and children – were forced to seek refuge since 2011, according to UN figures.
His comments come as the conflict in Syria is entering its seventh years, triggered on 15 and 16 March, 2011, when authorities clamped down on demonstrations in Damascus, setting off massive anti-Government protests.
Mr. Zeid called also for “ensuring accountability, establishing the truth and providing reparations,” if Syrians are ever to find peace and reconciliation.
(Source)
(Photo: UNHCR/A. D’Amato)
13 March 2017 – The suffering of children in war-torn Syria “hit rock bottom” in 2016 with the highest number of grave violations against them since verification began in 2014, underscored the United Nations children’s agency urging all parties to the conflict, those who have influence over them, and anyone who cared about children to find an immediate political solution to end the conflict.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least 652 children were killed last year – a 20 per cent increase compared to 2015 – 255 among them were killed in or near a school. Maiming and recruitment of children also rose sharply as violence across the country saw a drastic escalation.
“The depth of suffering is unprecedented. Millions of children in Syria come under attack on a daily basis, their lives turned upside down,” said the UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Geert Cappelaere, in a news release announcing the study Hitting Rock Bottom – How 2016 became the worst year for Syria’s children.
“Each and every child is scarred for life with horrific consequences on their health, well-being and future,” he added.
The UN agency also highlighted that challenges accessing several parts of the country obstructed a full assessment of children’s suffering and delivering urgently needed humanitarian assistance.
The most vulnerable among Syria’s children are the 2.8 million in hard-to-reach areas, including 280,000 children living under siege, almost completely cut off from humanitarian aid.
“Beyond the bombs, bullets and explosions, children are dying in silence often from diseases that can otherwise be easily prevented. Access to medical care, lifesaving supplies and other basic services remains difficult,” read the release.
UNICEF also warned that coping mechanisms are eroding both within Syria and across its borders – families are taking extreme measures just to survive, often pushing children into early marriage and child labour.
After six years of war, nearly six million children now depend on humanitarian assistance, a twelve-fold increase from 2012. Millions of children have been displaced, some up to seven times.
According to estimates, over 2.3 million children are now living as refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
Remarkable stories of courage, hope
However, there are some “remarkable stories” of children determined to pursue their hopes and aspirations, added the UN agency.
Darsy (aged 12), now a refugee in Turkey said: “I want to be a surgeon to help the sick and injured people of Syria. I dream of a Syria without a war so we can go home. I dream of a world without any wars.”
“We continue to witness the courage of Syria’s children,” said Mr. Cappelaere. “Many have crossed frontlines just to sit for school exams. They insist on learning, including in underground schools. There is so much more we can and should do to turn the tide for Syria’s children.”
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(Image Source: UNICEF)
28 December 2016 – Since operations began to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) two months ago, some 114,042 people have been displaced and as many as one million are out of reach of humanitarian assistance.
According to the latest report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the ongoing conflict has rendered it is impossible to state a definitive estimate on the number of people who are still living in ISIL-controlled areas.
However, the humanitarian community is concerned that conditions for these communities are deteriorating, as basic goods have not been replaced in western parts of the city since the city’s supply routes were closed last month.
Of particular concern is the safety and security of children, as more than 50,000 have been affected due to the Mosul military operation and surrounding conflict. Hamida Lasseko, Deputy Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Iraq, told UN News that the agency is working with the Iraqi Government to provide basic services, psychosocial support, and education to children.
“This is going to be our main area of focus – to advocate for the education of children. This will also help to keep the children safe: they will be protected from being recruited, affected from the armed conflict, and they will also be able to access their basic rights,” she said.
“We continue to ask all those who are involved in the conflict to leave children to grow as children so that they have a normal life,” Ms. Lasseko said, emphasizing that “they should stop using children for the benefit of the war.”
For those who are now living at camps, humanitarian assistance includes basic services such as clean drinking water, latrines, medical assistance. OCHA emphasized that providing new plots to accommodate people who have recently fled is an urgent priority: just last week, an additional 10,170 people were displaced.
However, security incidents have threatened aid operations in eastern Mosul. On 22 December, three suicide car bombs exploded in Gogchali, an area on the eastern outskirts of the city adjacent to the main access route. These explosions were in addition to mortar fire that killed aid workers and beneficiaries. just a few days earlier, as well as a significant uptick in trauma injuries over the past month.
Meanwhile, flooding due to ongoing rains has threatened water safety, and the arrival of winter brings dropping temperatures and harsher conditions. UN agencies and stakeholders are working to ensure that civilians have adequate protection from the cold, and one NGO is building a field hospital to shorten ambulance journeys and reduce pressure on Erbil hospitals.