On my last day in Greece, it was a day of celebration for the refugees. It was time to have a party for Eid al Adha, and our partner Swiss Cross had planned a party in what they affectionately call the Blue Elephant – the blue warehouse next door to the Karamanlis refugee camp. Music, sweets, watermelon, falafel, gifts for the children, and more were all getting under way by mid-afternoon.n SCM helped to purchase a few of the supplies for the party.

What was also getting under way was an art installation to bring attention to the men in the refugee camp. I spoke with the photographer, Gwen Versluis, who created the project, and she told me she was inspired to do something after having spent time volunteering on Lesbos to help the refugees there. She wanted to do more for them but she was not able to spend months and months in Greece so she began looking for another way to put what resources she had available to work to raise awareness. She noticed that the stories of the men were very underrepresented, that they tended to get a negative image in the media, and that everyone wants to help the women and children, but rarely the men. She hopes her project will change that.

Versluis had heard of a project called Inside Out – The People’s Art Project, started by the artist JR, who had won a TED prize for his work. She decided to apply for a grant to bring her idea to fruition and was accepted. She spent time in Karamanlis Camp taking portraits and interviewing the men, and on September 14 she and some volunteers began putting the portraits on the outside wall of the Blue Elephant. She wanted the portraits to be displayed where the people could see them, and with the party that day, it brought plenty of attention to her project from the people in the camp and the volunteers. Only a third of the portraits had been posted, with about 40 more to come. I met one woman outside who pointed out her husband on the wall. She wanted a photo taken of her baby, with the pictures in the background, she seemed proud her husband is part of the project.

More will be available online about the project on the Inside Out page and on Facebook. I know some people will not agree with the project (met a volunteer or two who have already questioned the premise) but in one anecdote about underwear, I find that I have to agree with the artist. A young man came in to the shop to find some nicer clothes to wear for his wedding – yes weddings are still taking place – and he was able to find most of what he was hoping for except a clean undershirt and briefs. There are tons of women’s and children’s underwear, but there are no men’s underwear. SCM has been asked several times to send women’s and children’s underwear, but no one asks for anything for the men. Dignity is something that is hard to quantify, and we, as the people trying to help the refugees in the name of helping them preserve some sense of dignity, seem to overlook that men need help with that, too.

 

A post written by Rita a few days ago~

I was talking to my daughter this morning in the Carolinas as they were weathering tropical storm Hermine and as always we got onto the subject of Syria. We talked about the continued humanitarian aid that SCM is involved with in Greece and Jordan and she said, “As much as we take care of the fallout, the cause of the violence continues. It feels like a bottomless pit of suffering.”

It’s easy to feel deeply from 6,000 miles away. It’s harder to do something about it. Governments and people globally should beware: If we don’t do something to address the situation in Syria and save the children from their current fate, then we won’t just undermine the future of these children, but we’ll be hurting our own as well.

What’s to become of the Syrian children? The lucky ones will move to Europe or the United States, where they’ll eventually learn the local language and attend schools and universities. They’ll dream of returning home, as most refugees do, but in the interim, they will become an integral part of our societies, contributing to our economies and cultural diversity.

Unfortunately, this future is for the select few. The vast majority will remain displaced and will miss years of education — if they ever return to school. According to the United Nations, 4 million Syrian children are currently not in school. If we don’t address this harsh reality, these children could face one (or more) of three likely outcomes: they could become professional beggars; they could be abused and trafficked as child labor or sexual slaves; or they could be recruited by terrorist organizations.

Please support any NGOs and churches taking care of children and educating them while war ravages their lands. Meanwhile, we can get involved in the public discourse on refugees and argue for their fair treatment and human rights.

Laila, my daughter, talks about her friend still in Aleppo and how she is working to just barely support her entire extended family of 22 people; but how long can she do that? How long will her job there be viable in the midst of such an insane war? We talk about how to get her out, which might not even be possible at this point, but then if we could get her out, would she be able to get a job – could she get a job to support herself and to send money back to the family that is still there? How do the Syrians make these kind of decisions, how do they leave their families behind, knowing they might never see them again?

Where is there a light at the end of this tunnel? We need to do more. More work with our governments to stop this war and the fighting. We especially need to invest in creating opportunities for the children. We, the people of the world, need to open our eyes and not only when we see a picture of a little “Omran” that makes us cry. We need to continue to ask, ‘How can this keep happening?’ and not just go back to our lives after a week goes by, until the next picture gets noticed. We need to pressure our governments to do something to Stop This War. We need to give the Syrian people a light at the end of their tunnel, so they can see where they will be going and what they will be doing and that they will be able to go back to their homeland, not just interminably stay in flex, living in temporary camps in Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey.

Most importantly, international governments and the people who elect their governments need to understand that if we remain complacent, the effects of the conflict on Syrian children will haunt us for years to come.

~Rita

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Please consider donating to help SCM in our work in Greece and Jordan and our education programs to help keep the Syrian children from being left behind in this world. Education will help keep them safer from the dangers of terrorist group recruitment, allow them to go back to Syria someday when the war has ended and be a part of the rebuilding, and keep their futures full of possibilities and opportunities that would be lost if they are not able to continue with their education. Thank you for your continued support!

Our program coordinator for our Women and Children’s Programs in Greece, Rasha, submitted this report of her activities to date in setting up the new schools in two of the camps in Northern Greece.

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Subject: SCM Educational Component in Northern Greece Refugee Camps (06/2016-08/2016)
Reported by: Rasha A.

Frakapor: Registration for this learning center site began about one week after my arrival to Greece. I conducted a tent-to-tent survey of school aged children (ages 5-18 yrs). Children with special needs were also reported. The learning center opened the following week. The site was not ideal for holding classes, but it was the only option as Save the Children refused to hand over or even share their site for SCM volunteers to hold classes. Therefore SCM volunteers worked with what they could to make the open site conducive to a proper learning space. Money raised by volunteers and donated by SCM itself was used to finance the needs of the center, including the purchase of notebooks and pencil packets (pencils, eraser, sharpener) for each child that attended, as well as small/large whiteboards, floor mats, etc.

Classes were arranged by the following age groups:
5-7 yrs
8-10 yrs
11-13 yrs
14+ yrs

Classes for 5-10 yr olds ran one hour (two – 30 minute subject sessions) daily.
Classes for 11+ yrs ran for 1.5 hrs (two – 45 minute subject sessions) daily.
Subjects included: Math, Arabic, English, Gym

Iliadis: Registration for this learning center site began about one month after my arrival to Greece. The reason for the delay was for one primary reason- the location for the learning center needed an infrastructure to be built. Therefore we were delayed in the start-up of that site. After about three weeks of planning and discussion with the builders, an initial infrastructure was put up. After another two weeks the main center structure was built. In addition to volunteers from various groups working to build SCM the site, they also custom made large cabinets and chalk boards as well as eventually returning with custom made school desks and chairs for the children.

Registration for school aged children (ages 5-18 yrs) was done prior to any building. Children with special needs were also reported.

Money raised by volunteers and donated by SCM itself was used to finance the needs of the center, including the purchase of notebooks and pencil packets (pencils, eraser, sharpener) for each child that attended, as well as small/large whiteboards, floor mats, workbooks, puzzles, etc.

Classes were arranged by the following age groups:
5-7 yrs
8-10 yrs
11-13 yrs
14+ yrs

Classes for 5-10 yr olds ran one hour (two – 30 minute subject sessions) daily.
Classes for 11+ yrs ran for 1.5 hrs (two – 45 minute subject sessions) daily.
Subjects included: Math, Arabic, English, Gym, Art

The site for this camp proved to be much more efficient for teaching, especially once I asked for a door to be built to control who comes in and out and also lower walls to be added to avoid distraction of the children during classes.

Note: Both sites included adult English classes (Beginner/Advanced) as well as alternative German for kids and adults.

The staff of the UNHCR in Jordan was kind enough to send us this report on the distribution of the baby kits we sent last fall. They are eagerly awaiting our next shipment, which should be getting ready for distribution just about now. In June we sent 100 Bed Boxes and 200 bags of supplies. And there is another shipment that will be departing Seattle for Jordan next month (September) that will contain another 100 Bed Boxes and the bags of supplies to go with them.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to stock the baby kits! Our group of Ravelry knitters and sewers have been really hard at work and have sent some really beautiful items.

And a big thank you to the Baby Box Company that we worked with to get our 200 Bed Boxes for this year – they donated half of the boxes to SCM to help us reach our goal!

We need a few more items to fill the boxes, and as you can see, they are asking for cool weather supplies. Please be sure to visit our Amazon wish list for needed items. This is an ongoing need to provide support for the new mothers and and their babies.

Thank you!!

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UNHCR Baby Kits Briefed Report:

• In winter and specifically in December 2015, UNHCR have received CRI items which included different types of baby kits and clothes needed by the new baby born or by the women who had delivered. This was in response to gap on baby clothes that was so much needed for mothers.
• The boxes were received and distributed to the Community Services offices to both (Zatari Camp office and Urban office). Urban office took around 10 boxes in which each box contains 4 bags of baby kits to be given to the persons of concerns while the rest of the boxes were distributed to refugees in the Camp.
• Urban office covered all villages of Mafraq district in the urban, while the Zatari Camp office  covered 12 Districts within the camp. Therefore; Refugees from different locations (Villages and poor areas) in Urban and Camp were able to obtain these baby kits, weather they got it from our office directly or in some cases we had to reach their homes and deliver them the kits they needed.
• Kits were given to different vulnerable categories of Refugees who were unable to afford the baby clothes cost, The clothes were distributed to either pregnant women who are on their last month to deliver (Pregnant with one baby or twins), or to cases of Women who have already given birth and their baby’s ages around 1- 3 weeks. These Categories contained;
• Cases with Female House Hold who with no male support or no income generation,
• Households with children disabled, household that are unable to provide the baby,
• Cases with Elderly who are caregiver to new baby born (for example; their grandsons and granddaughters),
• Cases contain a household with medical condition that is also unable to provide clothes for their new baby born.
• Cases with other different vulnerability concerns.
• Number of Cases were given Baby kits in Mafraq Office were around 45 Cases, while in Zatari Camp office the 135 of cases due to the high number in the camp and the vulnerability of the HH cases in need to new baby born cloths was high. They were distributed through UNHCR Helpdesk or through home visits to specific cases who are in need for it.

• All Bags were distributed during the months December 2015 Until March 2016 (winter Season), many Refugees have returned to us asking for these baby cloths and they were around 10 cases in Urban but unfortunately we were ran out of them all and in both offices.
• Cases who have received these baby kits were very happy, they totally benefited of them as it was winter and they really needed warm clothes for these poor new babies, women were thankful and informed other pregnant women about these kits, and that’s how we were able to distribute them all during the above mentioned dates and among poor areas. If there will be another of baby kits boxes to be deliver again for the refugees we would love and kindly wonder if these clothes to fit the Autumn Season, if available J. The quality of cloths was good.
• We wanted to have some pictures with these wonderful cases but most of them were refusing for privacy, though; there were a woman who had tiny beautiful twins whom she accept to take a photo 🙂

Finally, we as UNHCR team and Refugees would like to thank you so much for these baby kits that put a big smile on refugees faces and make them realize there are people from different places; close and away places, within the same country or from countries on the other side of this planet who also are thinking of them and looking forward to serve them within these hard times as this shows our humanity side of our personalities as good human.

Thank You for everyone’s Effort and nice gifts 🙂

 

July was a good month for SCM. Here is what we were able to do this last month thanks to your generous donations:

• Supplied food to over 3,000 people inside of Syria for one month
• Opened a school at Iliadis Camp in Greece for children and for adults
• Distributed food everyday during Ramadan: bread, fruits vegetables and dates
• Distributed gift bags for the Eid – full of toys, candy, new clothes for the children
• Distributed over 1000 korans and prayer beads that the refugees requested
• Sent out school supplies with nearly every mission volunteer leaving from the US to Greece
• Participated in the Hackathon/Hack for Humanity with Microsoft and came away with a system to streamline our communication with our teams in Greece and gather more information and data to track progress, supplies, issues, and more
• Distributed clothing that we had sent via container to Jordan to the refugees there
• Helped several refugee families with funds to pay for surgery and medicines that were needed

With your continued support and donations we can continue to help the Syrian people. Even though Ramadan is finished and we have all celebrated the Eid, the displaced Syrians are still living in the same conditions, and in some ways worse than before, and the situation is not going to get better any time soon. The Syrians are facing uncertain futures, they don’t know what will come next or where they will end up. We need to keep our efforts going. Please donate now, and help SCM provide more nutrition, more educational opportunities, more medications, more school supplies, more baby formula, and so on. The more you give, the more we can accomplish. Any amount helps!

Thank you all again for your help and your loving hearts.

~Rita Zawaideh

 

SCM is setting up a section of a large warehouse for our school at the Frakapor camp in Greece. Tomorrow will be our first day operating there, and the first couple of days will be spent assessing the kids to see where they are at academically. We are being helped by refugees who used to be teachers back home in Syria, as well as our humanitarian volunteers that join the missions.

Supplies for the school are being sent to Greece with our volunteers, and some supplies are being purchased there in Greece. You can help get more school supplies to them by visiting our Amazon Wish List where you can find items needed for the schools and for our New Baby Welcome Kits that are also going to go to Greece, but in a container in September.