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serve<br />
Syria<br />
Sheltering in a school in Aleppo. (Avo Kaprealian and Sedki Al Imam/JRS)<br />
Thanks to these volunteer<br />
networks, JRS is coordinating<br />
emergency relief services in<br />
Aleppo, Damascus and Homs. JRS<br />
teams regularly visit the displaced<br />
families and, at JRS centres,<br />
people register to receive food,<br />
accommodation, hygiene products,<br />
clothing, household items and<br />
basic medical assistance. A kitchen<br />
set up in Aleppo in August feeds<br />
more than 5,000 people twice<br />
a day, for breakfast and dinner.<br />
Volunteers hand out the food<br />
in shelters and at distribution<br />
Testimony<br />
“We used to be one nation but<br />
now we are divided.” Mahmoud<br />
fled Homs with Azra and their two<br />
children, Layla and Mustafa. In<br />
November 2011 protesters started to<br />
gather for peaceful demonstrations<br />
in the city centre every Friday after<br />
prayers. “The government set up<br />
road blocks and nobody could leave.<br />
I saw them shoot protesters,” said<br />
Mahmoud. The young family lived<br />
in a part of the city controlled by<br />
government forces. “When soldiers<br />
began to hand out weapons to all<br />
points across the city but it’s never<br />
enough.<br />
Educational support,<br />
counselling and activities such as<br />
sports and art give children the<br />
chance to share their experiences.<br />
“Helping children is one of our<br />
priorities. Even though they may<br />
not be direct victims, they suffer<br />
so much by being displaced and<br />
witnessing this terrible situation,<br />
the tragedy in their families and<br />
disruption of their lives,” says<br />
Nawras Sammour SJ, JRS Middle<br />
East director and himself a Syrian.<br />
the men in the neighbourhood,<br />
asking them to fight the protesters,<br />
we knew we had to leave.” Layla is<br />
almost two and Mustafa five. Their<br />
parents heard about children being<br />
abducted for ransom. “I was afraid<br />
something might happen to them<br />
in Homs,” says Azra. They took the<br />
bus to Jordan and now they live in a<br />
small flat in Amman. “The Jordanians<br />
are very friendly”, says Azra. “But<br />
life is difficult. We have used all our<br />
savings and it’s not easy to find a<br />
job.”<br />
In Homs, where the academic<br />
year was severely disrupted, some<br />
children were unable to attend<br />
school for more than a year. Since<br />
mid-April JRS has offered remedial<br />
lessons every afternoon at two<br />
centres. Up to 800 children attend.<br />
“We hope that through establishing<br />
an educational routine we can<br />
restore a sense of normalcy in their<br />
lives,” says Fr Nawras. During the<br />
summer, activities for children<br />
were also held in Damascus and in<br />
the shelters in Aleppo.<br />
Although some schools have<br />
reopened in Damascus and Homs,<br />
others remain closed. In Aleppo,<br />
they are closed because the fighting<br />
is too intense. Some 60,000<br />
displaced people have sought<br />
shelter in schools, mosques, the<br />
university campus and abandoned<br />
buildings in the city. Sadly, Deir<br />
Vartan, the first centre of JRS in<br />
Syria, which opened its doors to<br />
Iraqi refugees and Syrians in more<br />
peaceful times in 2008, was partly<br />
destroyed by fighting in September.<br />
Despite this setback, JRS remains<br />
responsible for the operation of<br />
shelters in five schools in the city<br />
and supports others.<br />
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