Humanitarian mission learns of Syrian refugees’ anguish
GAZIANTE: PNajwa Darwish lost her husband seven years ago in a bomb explosion in Syria.
The 42-year-old widow has become a refugee since.
“On that fateful day, I was informed that a bomb had exploded at the premises where my husband worked,” she told this Bernama TV reporter who is accompanying a humanitarian mission to provide aid to Syrian refugees.
After her husband’s death, Najwa found the locality in Syria where she lived with her four young children unsafe and decided to move here.
Gaziantep is a city in south-central Turkey, situated near the Sacirsuyu River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, in the limestone hills north of Aleppo, Syria.
Najwa said she does tailoring and house cleaning jobs to earn a living and finance the schooling of her children, aged between eight and 14.
The humanitarian mission to Turkey and Syria since Jan 10 is undertaken by Global Peace Mission (GPM) Malaysia along with the Malaysian Humanitarian and Development Association (HUDA) and the WeCare volunteer group from Brunei Darussalam.
Last Sunday, the team called on 10 Syrian families and handed over food parcels.
Many of the recipients are single mothers and orphans. Some of them have had to take up three different jobs to earn a living.
Another refugee, Mariam Kassem, 46, said her only son, aged 16, had to drop out of school since they moved to Gaziantep three years ago after her husband died of cancer.
“We earn only 800 Turkish Lira (about RM550) a month. Some of it goes towards the house rent. The rest is just enough for our daily expenses,” she said.
The Syrian civil war has taken its toll.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since the war began in 2011, seeking refuge in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and beyond. Millions more are displaced inside Syria.
HUDA founder Muhammad Jantan said the distributed parcels of food can last up to a month.
He also expressed hope that more Malaysians will come forward and donate to help these refugees.
“During the winter, the refugees are unable to work overtime or do other chores. Furthermore, there will be disruption in the food supply.
“It is our hope that we can provide more for them, especially the single mothers with many children,” he said.
Yesterday, six members of the mission – two each from GPM, HUDA and WeCare – entered Syria through Kilis, a city in south-central Turkey. They will distribute food and winter clothing at the refugee camps.
The four others – Muhammad of HUDA; Dhiyauddin Athir Nadzari, regional coordinator for Asia-Pacific of the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW); volunteer Ahmad Zikri Azhari and this reporter – were disallowed from going into Syria over an application documentation hiccup.
“Nevertheless, we will continue with the mission in and around Gaziantep, distributing aid to refugees and at kindergartens and orphanages,” said Muhammad.
— BERNAMA
