13. Oktober 2014
BEIRUT — Life for
Mohammad Hammoud and his wife, Khawleh Al-Hussen, is consumed with worry.
After fleeing their
native Syria, the family made a home in Lebanon.
They live in rooms
above the factory where Hammoud works, earning $90 a week. The concrete walls
and broken windows will provide shelter — but not warmth — for their seven
children this winter. And it has been three years since anyone in the family
has attended school. The oldest children are forgetting how to read and write,
the youngest never learned.
“We are living, but
not decently,” said Hammoud.
Even though he doesn’t
like to accept help, Hammoud is grateful for winter clothing, blankets, food
and other supplies brought to his family by members of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lebanon.
Members of the Beirut
Branch gathered Saturday to prepare more than 100 food boxes for Syrian
refugees in their city.
The U.N. high
commissioner for refugees reported this year that the total number of refugees
worldwide now exceeds 50 million — including some 6.5 million that have been
displaced by the Syrian Civil War. Officially, some 1.14 million of those
refugees have fled to Lebanon.
Father Paul Karam,
president of Caritas Lebanon, said the humanitarian organization estimates, however,
that there are closer to 1.6 million Syrian refugees in the city.
And when the number of
Syrian refugees are added to the number of refugees from other countries,
"refugees account for more than half the population of Lebanon," he
said. "Can Lebanon afford this huge number of people? Can the
infrastructure support this number of people? We are in a real crisis."
There is no doubt the
Syria crisis — dubbed “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era” by the
United Nations — has strained local resources in Lebanon, where they have not
set up refugee camps. Multiple Syrian refugee families in Beirut live together
in small apartments and most Syrian refugee children don’t qualify for public
school.
Before fleeing their
country, Hammoud and Al-Hussen lived “between the army and the airport” in
Aleppo, Syria. When the war moved to their village, “we left our home and our
country and we came here,” said Al-Hussen. “I still think about my life there.
… Our life here is OK, but it is not the same. We don’t have our parents or our
family. We feel lonely here.”
Al-Hussen said they
came to Lebanon because they had “no other solution.”
Now, she said, she
worries constantly “about school and about the wintertime.”
“There is no future
for the children,” Hammoud said. “Their future is destroyed.”
Carlos Nassif of the
LDS Beirut Branch said people in his city are living in “difficult days.”
“A lot of people are
hungry and needy and this way we can help them,” he said, looking at a food box
containing an LDS Charities symbol.
Roger Trad, a new
Latter-day Saint in the country, said preparing the food boxes marked his first
opportunity to provide humanitarian aid to others in the area.
He said the LDS Church
members understand the needs and hopes of the refugees “because we ourselves
live in times of war.”
Karim Assouad,
president of the LDS Church's Amman Jordan District — which includes Lebanon —
said members of the small Beirut Branch are very responsive to church
humanitarian efforts. "Whenever they know that we are going to do food
packages, they come — even if they have one hour," he said.
After the food boxes
arrived at Al-Hussen’s home, she sat on the floor with her daughters, prepared
squash for dinner and talked about life in Syria.
“When I receive help I
feel happy and sad at the same time because I don’t have anything to give
back,” she said.
Still, Hammoud and
Al-Hussen said they plan to share what they received from members of the Beirut
Branch with Hammoud's brother and his family, who live behind the factory.
Hammoud said his
family is obliged to accept help and to share it with others.
“The kids need to eat and drink. They cannot understand this situation,” he said. “Their future is important to me.” |
| Unsere jüngste Mitarbeiterin beim Zusammenstellen der Essenspakete (Foto durch Sarah Jane Weaver DN) |
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