CHRISTIAN AID NEWS

Everyday life on hold: images from
Gaza, following the upsurge in
violence in November
Chistian Aid/Azzam al Saqqa
and need counselling and therapy.
Another partner, Mouvement Social,
is seeking to provide education to
Syrian refugee children, many of whom
cannot access the Lebanese school
system due to over-demand. This
story of three children, Moustapha, 14,
Aliyah, 11, and their cousin Hassan,
14, who fled the conflict in Syria is
typical of many refugee children, and
highlights the importance of the work
Mouvement Social is doing.
‘We arrived in Beirut, after leaving our
village and country. We left a big house
to live in just two rooms (two families
together). No school agreed to take us.
We felt that in an instant our lives had
changed. We had become street children.
‘Hope arrived through the alternative
classes from Mouvement Social in
Sin-el-Fil: it was like a lifeboat. It was
a chance to begin to learn again and
to not be out in the street. I was happy
to have classmates, to read and write,
take part in the different activities,
draw, and do drama. The thing that
makes me happiest is that once again
I am living like any other child in the
world, but especially that I am accepted
and treated like all the others. I am not
different, I am their friend.’
• Please help us to continue to respond
to the desperate needs across the
Middle East region.
You can donate via our website:
christianaid.org.uk/emergency
A green shoot
from the
desert of dohA
MorE than 190 countriEs came
together at the UN climate summit
in December to work on a global
response to climate change. The
meeting, known as COP 18 or the 18th
‘conference of parties’, ended with
some progress but offered little for
the world’s poorest people.
The summit was held in Doha,
the capital of Qatar, and three staff
members from Christian Aid’s London
office were there to lobby ministers,
organise campaign actions and
publicise our work in the media.
The negotiations ended with an
extension of the Kyoto Protocol
until 2020 – although Japan and
Canada joined the USA in opting out
– together with new climate finance
commitments from the UK, Germany
and Denmark, and a commitment to
discuss a mechanism to deal with
‘loss and damage’ felt by countries
most affected by climate change.
Christian Aid’s senior climate justice
christianaid.org.uk/if
adviser, Mohamed Adow, was at
Doha. He said: ‘The world has suffered
another year of extreme weather
and scientists tell us it will only get
worse. The effects of our current
0.8C warming above pre-industrial
levels are bad enough. Just imagine
what it will be like if we remain on
course for a rise of more than 2C.
‘This agreement did nothing to shift
the world away from its trajectory
towards environmental chaos. But
one of the few green shoots in the
desert of Doha was a pledge by the
UK to increase funding to developing
nations suffering from the worst
effects of climate change.’
Lidy Nacpil, from Christian Aid
partner Jubilee South – and a member
of the official Philippines delegation
at Doha – added: ‘We cannot wait.
We need climate finance to help us
survive, and cuts in emissions from
big polluters to prevent the storms
from getting worse.’
Christian Aid News 7