Bekaa Valley: Umm Krayem and her children swapped their comfortable family home in Homs for a shelter made of old potato sacks on a muddy patch of land in Lebanon. Her children’s clothes are dirty, their cheeks are cracked and raw from exposure to cold weather and their feet are freezing in open-toe rubber sandals.
Umm Krayem’s four sons and daughters are among several thousand Syrian child refugees suffering from cold and hunger this winter — and whom international aid agencies say they are unable to help. A report released on Tuesday by Save the Children reveals that international aid efforts to alleviate the Syrian crisis have brought only half the money needed to help the estimated 366,000 refugees.
The funding has been “startlingly low” and leaves a shortfall of $200 million (Dh734.5 million), the report says. Justin Forsyth, Save the Children UK’s chief executive, said: “The international community needs to match its diplomatic and security concerns with funding to help children. Unless there is a surge in funding, thousands of children are going to spend a bitter winter without proper shelter from the cold, and many will become sick as a result.”
In Lebanon, where no official camps exist to host the more than 133,000 Syrian refugees, families scrounge for whatever shelter they can find: some stay in unfinished buildings or abandoned schools while others live in sheep sheds and chicken coops.
The Daily Telegraph visited one tented community in the Bekaa Valley where 150 Syrian families are renting patches of field on which to build homes with whatever local materials they can find. Filthy open drains that have been dug into the muddy terrain separate shelters made of plastic sheets and hessian bags used for carrying potatoes.
Livelihoods destroyed
Most of the families are from Baba Amr in Homs, a district demolished by relentless shelling during fighting between rebel forces and government troops in February of this year. At first, the families fled to nicer accommodation, but unable to work with their livelihoods destroyed, they could no longer pay the rent.
“Our house in Homs has been flattened, we have nothing left there,” said Umm Krayem, 43. “We have been here for one year now. We borrow food from a shop nearby and pay them back whenever we get a little money, but we are deeply in debt. Sometimes we eat the vegetables from the fields that are too bad for the farmers to sell.”
Sitting inside the shelter, the light from outside filtering through gaps, she said she dreaded the winter ahead, fearing for the health of her children. “When it rains or snows, the mud comes in and soaks the mattresses. We don’t have proper fuel for heating so we use what wood we can find and the children become ill from the smoke and it hurts our lungs. The children are always sick with flu.”
The Save the Children report says there are now fears that infections and diseases could spread among children, who are particularly vulnerable to the cold. The situation is dire in other neighbouring countries.
In Iraq, where 60,000 refugees live in the politically unstable Anbar province, the lack of drainage means that floods are taking away what few possessions fleeing refugees brought with them. In Jordan, which hosts some 200,000 Syrians, it is illegal for refugees to work so they cannot support themselves. Not allowed to work, and with Syria approaching its second year at war, once affluent families have been left destitute.
Dire living conditions
Ahmad, 46, is a law school graduate who raised his five children according to a suburban lifestyle. He now lives in an old sheep shed in Lebanon, which, despite days of cleaning, still smells of manure. “We are living in terrible circumstances,” he said. “It’s hard. It’s cold. Now it’s starting to rain, and the water comes inside. I cry in my heart. I feel depressed. It’s unjust. Is there a worse way to live than this?”
Save the Children is working in Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, helping thousands of children who have fled to recover from their experiences and prepare for the coming winter. The agency has launched an appeal for $35.9 million to help fund its work in the region.
