By Mohamad Kanawati
DARA’A, Syria — I was part of a UNICEF team that joined with five other UN agencies on a recent humanitarian assessment mission to Syria’s south. The aim was to assess the situation in Dara’a, deliver emergency supplies, and meet with partner agencies.
Essential supplies were delivered to partner agency the Syrian Arab Red Crescent for distribution to conflict-affected families. The UNICEF contribution consisted of 1,000 boxes of high energy biscuits for 5,000 children and two diarrhoea kits, each sufficient to treat 600 cases of diarrhoea.
Dara’a is both a city and a governorate, the latter forming part of Syria’s border with Jordan to the south, with the city only a few kilometres from the border. The city is the centre of an agricultural region.
Many children and their families have been displaced from their homes. The on-going conflict has also affected the ability of humanitarian agencies to reach the area with emergency supplies.
Of Dara’a city’s estimated population of around 1.2 million people, close to 72,000 families, including many children, have moved from other parts of the city or from the outlying rural areas.
Around 4,500 families live in shelters, such as schools and other public buildings, and unfinished buildings. Not being designed to house large numbers of people, the shelters are typically overcrowded and lack sufficient basic facilities like water and toilets. I visited a shelter located in a three-story school building still under construction. Around 35 families are living in the classrooms without proper
electricity or water supplies, and there is a shortage of mattresses. Toilet and washing facilities are each in a single room for the entire building.
Most displaced families, however, are accommodated in the host community, sometimes sharing homes with extended family or friends.
Although I could see signs of normality in the streets, with people walking about, a shortage of fuel meant vehicles were scarce. Rubbish had accumulated in a number of areas and many businesses appeared to be closed. There are frequent power cuts, but the water system was still operational. The lack of diesel supplies is impacting food production, which is believed to have fallen by two-thirds compared to two years ago. Local bakeries are suffering from a lack of diesel and wheat.
Children of Syria A UNICEF update
Inside the Syrian southern city of Dara’a
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Children studying English during a remedial education class at a UNICEF-supported school club in Dara’a city.
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“I don’t know why people have to fight so much. So many people died, so many of us have become homeless. I saw a lot of fighting and bombing in Syria. At least it’s peaceful here in the camp. I have lost many of my friends, but I make friends easily. My cap? I wear it the right way when I am in the sun. In the classroom I wear it backwards so it does not block my view. I like it this way.” Alaa, 9, grade 3 at a UNICEF-supported school in Zaatari refugee camp.
“There is no water, I barely find food to eat, but nothing will stop me from smiling. All Syrian children my age or
even younger should be patient, to be able to overcome hardships. One last thing: education is very important, but
respect comes first.” 10 year-old boy, Lebanon
Faces of the children of Syria
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There is a huge need for health care and medicines, especially for children, yet local health services have been severely affected by the conflict. The main hospital, for example, sits on the front lines and is not functional. Three of the governorate’s seven hospitals are out of service and local health clinics are picking up the strain. Yet, around 1,500 doctors – almost a third of those in the governorate – are believed to have left the country, leaving a severe shortage of skilled health staff.
UNICEF supports around 100 school clubs in Dara’a city and the surrounding governorate. Children aged between about 7 and 15 years, most of whom have been displaced, take part in remedial education along
with recreation and creative activities. Children also receive psychosocial support. The school clubs represent one of the few places available for these children to play and have fun with other children. I was really impressed by the enthusiasm of the children, many of whom told me that without the school clubs they would be stranded at home with little else to do.
UNICEF along with other UN agencies and partners will continue to provide much needed support in Dara’a, as the security situation allows, but the needs are huge. UNICEF requires around US$16.5 million dollars to support its humanitarian assistance in Syria to the end of 2013.
Emergency supplies from a UN inter-agency supply convoy are unloaded at the Syrian Arab Red Crescent distribution centre in Dara’a.
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Children of Syria
By Chris Niles
ERBIL, Iraq —The story of Erbil is a long one. Urban life began here in 6,000 BCE, which puts it among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth.
It’s been ruled by the Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans, and that’s not even a complete list.
The latest chapter is being written by the crisis next door in Syria.
Kurdish Iraq, of which Erbil is the capital, shares a sliver of border with Syria. There is a bridge across a tributary of the Tigris River in a place called Sehela.
Since the borders opened just over a month ago, more than 60,000 refugees have flooded in.
Between 500 to 1,000 Syrians have been crossing every day. There are now 200,000 Syrians in Iraq and we’re preparing, by the end of the year, for 500,000.
The Kurdish government has donated 20 per cent of its budget to the crisis This week it asked oil companies for upwards of $50 million.
There’s oil money in Erbil. In the rich parts of town the houses are big
and modern. The latest model cars speed along well-kept streets. The boutiques and malls are filled with expensive things.
Iraqis come here on vacation because it’s safe.
Syrian refugees come here because they have no choice.
It’s impossible to prepare mentally for your first visit to a refugee camp. For those who have not had to live in one, there is simply no measure of comparison.
And to try to begin to comprehend the magnitude of what people have suffered is almost insulting to them. Yes, it’s unbearably hot and dusty, but I can go back to the UN compound and take a shower. I haven’t lost everything I own. I can still go home.
So you step into a camp feeling like a fraud. A tourist, almost. You wonder what people think when they see you.
My guide to Kawergosk camp, just west of Erbil, was UNICEF Emergency Co-ordinator Jorge Caravotta.
We went to a tent where two children lay on a mattress. The girl seemed almost comatose, her eyes closed and her mouth open. The boy’s limbs twitched incessantly and his mother’s reach to soothe him was instinctive.
The children were nine and 10 years old but looked much younger, because in addition to having disabilities they were severely malnourished. Jorge, who is a doctor, slipped into medical mode, examining the children.
The parents described how their children had become afflicted with what Jorge thought was probably epilepsy. Their mother showed us photos of the children as toddlers. The comparison between the two bright, healthy youngsters in the picture and emaciated figures who couldn’t even lift their heads was heartbreaking.
I couldn’t understand what she was saying but I didn’t need to; her suffering was etched on her face.
The parents said their doctor in Syria had told them to restrict the children’s diet to water and ground up biscuits, which was how they got so thin. The little boy’s elbows were the widest point of his arms.
Jorge promised to do what he could.
A day later, he told me that we are going back to the camp this week to deliver fortified peanut paste to the children and to train health workers in how to dispense it. He’s hopeful the children might recover their nutritional health.
I haven’t been in the field long, but I’m heartened by the stories I hear from colleagues like Jorge. And I’ve heard a few of them. Yes, UNICEF is providing millions of litres of water, thousands of tonnes of medical and school supplies. That’s the big picture. But the small picture also counts. Helping two parents nurse their children back to health may not seem that significant in the face of the ghastly magnitude of the suffering in this region, but it’s important if we are to remember why we do this work.
“My drive is compassion,” Jorge said, putting it more elegantly. “Without compassion the work is empty, and the results are less.”
An aid worker’s first impressions of Erbil
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UNICEF Emergency Coordinator Jorge Caravotta plays marbles with children in Kawergosk refugee camp in northern Iraq.
Refugees by numbers*
Lebanon 763,000Jordan 525,000Turkey 495,000Iraq 192,000Egypt 127,000North Africa 14,000Total 2,116,000(UNICEF estimates that 50% of these refugees are children.)- Figures have been rounded*UNHCR registered refugees and individuals awaiting registration as of 26 September 2013
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Children of Syria
Jordan
In Azraq camp, water, sanitation and hygiene facilities are ready for 24,000 Syrian refugees. Additional education, child protection and health and nutrition facilities for up to 50,000 residents are near completion.
LebanonSo far this year, nearly 50,000 children received medical assistance from UNICEF-supported mobile medical teams in tented settlements.
SyriaUNICEF delivered sodium hypochlorite to continue the provision of safe water for 6 million people in Damascus, Rural Damascus and Tartous.
TurkeyA campaign is under way to distribute 80,000 pairs of shoes to children. So far, more than 40,000 children in 11 camps have received news shoes.
IraqMore than 30,000 children and youth in the latest influx have been vaccinated against measles and 13,000 children from 6-59 months received Vitamin A supplementation.
By Melanie SharpeZA’ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan – At a protection centre for Syrian children who arrive at Za’atari refugee camp by themselves, 12-year-old Ahmad* smiles, rubs his swollen eyes.He says his eyes have bothered him since he was younger, from work he did, before. “But they have given me medicine here,” he says. “They will get better.”A couple of weeks ago, Ahmad walked, alone, around the camp. Home to more than 120,000 people, Za’atari is the second largest refugee camp in the world.Ahmad asked person after person how he could attend a youth-friendly space, safe places UNICEF operates in the camp in which adolescents can learn, play and receive psychosocial support.Eventually, he found his way to one of these spaces. Social workers brought him to the UNICEF specialized protection centre for unaccompanied and separated children managed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Since Za’atari opened in July 2012, more than 1,000 unaccompanied and separated children have been identified in Jordan, the majority in the camp.Originally from Dara’a, Syria, Ahmad left school after finishing kindergarten to work with his father.
“I came here because, when I was at home, the house would shake four or five times a day because of the bombs,” he says.Ahmad explains that his parents brought him to Irbid, a town in northern Jordan, to stay with his grandmother. His parents then returned to Syria. “My father and mother are the most important thing to me,” he says.Ahmad doesn’t say why he left his grandmother, but he somehow traveled 70 km by bus from Irbid to Za’atari camp by himself.His two favourite things are swimming and playing football, says the boy.For now Ahmad is in the constant
care of social workers. He attends youth-friendly spaces and is enrolled to go back to school this month.“I would die to go back to school. I want a good future. I want to be a teacher or a doctor or an engineer,” he says.
Protection, around the clockThere are a variety of reasons children are fleeing Syrian on their own.Some fear conscription into armed groups or being arrested for having family members fighting. Some children want to get away from the constant violence and have been forcibly separated from family – or their relatives have died.
Support for Syrian children who arrive at Za’atari – alone
Ahmad (name changed), 12, at Jordan’s Za’atari camp for Syrian refugees. He is among more than 1,000 unaccompanied and separated children who have been identified and registered at the camp since it opened in July 2012.
Briefs
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For more information:Juliette ToumaUNICEF Middle East and North Africa
[email protected] [email protected]
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