Blog: Disaster Relief

By, Hashim Zakiullah

“My one holiday wish is for a better way to provide food and a roof for my children.” -Manal*, Jordan

More than four million people have fled Syria since 2011. Many, like Manal and her children, have lost their homes and property, and now live in refugee camps across the border in neighboring countries. The same has happened to thousands of people from Iraq, who left homes and jobs behind, and became refugees to escape the violence in their country.

Monsoon rains devastated village families in Myanmar in the first week of August after a long period of heavy rains initiated a flash flood. As the death toll continues to rise, those who have survived are without food and water.

The village school has also collapsed but this is the least of the villager's concern at the moment as their focus is simply on surviving. The monsoon season will continue at it's peak for the next four to six weeks, meaning a lot more rain will evoke further flooding in the region. 

Focusing on Turkey’s efforts to provide hospitality to refugees, this is the last in a three-part series exploring the ongoing crisis gripping the lives of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Middle East. The series has examined the ties that bind the Holy Land, Lebanon, and Turkey - three countries experiencing particular strain as they struggle for solutions to the greatest humanitarian crisis to affect the region in modern times.

As the second in a three-part series exploring the ongoing crisis gripping the lives of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Middle East, this story focuses on Lebanon. First we explored the unique challenges of the Holy Land, and the third installation will examine Turkey’s attempts to provide hospitality to the refugees. The series studies the ties that bind those countries struggling for solutions.

More than four years ago Syrian refugees in search of mercy began fleeing to neighboring countries to escape unspeakable mayhem in their homeland. Early in the crisis, compassionate outreach was abundant for those broken souls, with Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey opening their borders, and through 2013, Israel provided field hospital medical care to at least 700 severely wounded and critically ill innocent citizens who were delivered to or collapsed at checkpoints.

Not so long ago, thousands of families in Syria and Iraq found their lives turned upside down. A need for safe harbor drove them to nearby Jordan. Within a year more than half a million were living in an unfamiliar land.

Dzia’s Journey

Dzia* was named after her great-grandmother, who came to Syria in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide, toting Dzia’s grandmother - an infant at the time - and two great-uncles at her side on the arduous journey. As a second generation Armenian-Syrian, recently Dzia found herself in a position eerily similar to her great-grandmother’s.

Many have known the corner of the world we call the Middle East as a place of consistent tumult filled with intermittent bursts of violence. This land harbors some of the most beautiful and intriguing sites for tourists and explorers, but foreigners are often warned to tread the ground gingerly for fear of getting caught in life-threatening violence. Currently, savage acts are holding the lives of the innocent in the balance as they cry out for relief...for an end to depravity and a beginning of a sustained way of life.

We finished our Disaster Relief Team Training on the beautiful island of Maui. The training went great and all who attended were excellent.

It was also fun.

April 25th, 2015 was a day that many Nepali people will not forget. The earth shook…and shook and shook and they wondered, “Is this the end?”