To Syria, With Love | Summer/Fall 2014

TO SYRIA, Summer/Fall 2014

with love UP CLOSE PAGE 6

and Personal

One year later: Remembering the Anniversary of Syria’s Chemical Attack Page 10 SRD Refugee Hospital Medical Assistant Abu Hamzeh: His Story Page 11

Women in Syria: Risks of Motherhood Page 12

Keeping Syria on Our Minds Page 14

Dear Friend, On August 21, 2013, Syrian government forces fired 20 rockets with chemical heads into the Damascus suburbs. More than 1,300 people died—with women and children comprising more than 65 percent of the casualties. Many more people were critically injured. It was the worst attack the Syrian crisis had witnessed yet.

More than a year later, war continues to devastate Syria’s people with dangerous situations and difficult choices—to live under constant threat of bombardment or flee and live as refugees without prospect in a foreign land.

These are choices no one should have to make.

But there is hope and there are things we can do to ease Syrians’ burdens. That hope comes in the form of humanitarian aid—sharing what we have with those who are going through tremendous struggles at this time. And we at SRD have continued to provide food, medical care and more to Syrians in need since the first year of the conflict in 2011.

As the crisis in Syria has grown and created new humanitarian needs, so too have our programs in addressing those needs. Our medical facilities in Syria provide continuing care for short and long-term injuries. But most importantly, they address one of the greatest areas of need right now in Syria—psycho-social support.

Thank you for your continued support of our work and the plight of the Syrian people.

Without you, our work would not be possible.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jihad Qaddour President Syria Relief and Development “[E]ven after many refugees flee the violence of their homeland, they are confronted by a plethora of economic, medical and social challenges, such as residing in temporary and often worn down living spaces.” For more on the plight of Syrian Refugees, read “Up Close and Personal,” beginning on page 6.

2 | To Syria, With Love

Syria Relief and Development | 3

CONTENTS

02

05 About Us

11 Abu Hamzeh: His Story

His work in Syria helping people in need and escape from conflict

06 Up Close and Personal

SRD’s Salman Husain reports from Amman

12 Women in Syria: Risks of Motherhood

Increased Pregnancy Risks Among Syrian Women

Letter from the President

where he spent the summer documenting stories of Syrian refugees

10 Syria’s Chemical Attack: One Year Later

Editor-in-Chief: Muneeza Tahir Design: Rebekah Davis Contributors: Dena Elian, Salman Husain, Amany Qaddour, Tatiana Sibaai, Matthew Timmerman

4 | To Syria, With Love

14 Keeping Syria on Our Minds

Bringing the sidelined conflict back into

the headlines

SyriaReliefandDevelopment.org info@syriareliefanddevelopment.org SyriaReliefandDevelopment |

SyriaRandD

PO Box 25446 Overland Park, KS 66225 | (913) 438-9990 Tax ID 45-3737015

ABOUT US Syria Relief and Development (SRD) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing humanitarian aid to Syrians affected by violence, hunger, poverty and displacement.

SRD is based in the U.S. with offices in Syria, Jordan and Turkey. We strive to provide compassionate and dignified relief to those in need without regard to race, religion, color, orientation, creed or political affiliation. Our mission is to provide crisis humanitarian relief and plant the seeds of sustainable development for the people of Syria. Our food, seasonal and medical care programs provide much-needed relief to individuals and families in cities we work throughout Syria and for Syrian refugees in Amman, Jordan. To date, we have distributed more than $10 million in aid to Syrians in need and helped hundreds of thousands of people.

Distributions to Date: Aleppo

Idleb

Deir Alzor

Homs Hama

Damascus

Winter Care Packages Standard Care Packages Pediatric Primary Healthcare Centers Refugee Health and Trauma Center (Akilah Hospital)

Daraa

Amman, Jordan

3,533

25

750

400

20

46,393

40,936

17,553

Mobile Medical Points *

4,889 Dental Clinic SRD Hospital Network Medical Aid for Field Hospitals **

Figures are based on a freeze frame in time and are constantly updated. To view the most recent version, visit our website.

*Number of Mobile Medical Points **Number of Hospitals All other figures represent number of program beneficiaries.

Syria Relief and Development | 5

UP CLOSE and Personal

by Salman Husain

Salman Husain, a student at the University of Kansas and SRD’s Summer 2014 multimedia intern, spent time at our Refugee Health and Trauma Center in Amman, Jordan. Here he tells about his time in Amman and the incredible refugees he met.

It’s difficult to properly express the excitement I felt in receiving the opportunity to travel to Amman, Jordan and document the stories of Syrian refugees at SRD’s Refugee Health and Trauma Center. In addition to gaining professional experience and developing my skills, it was an opportunity to spend quality time taking in Jordan’s rich culture.

This feeling of euphoria dwindled, however, when I began to put into context the serious nature of an internship that involved working with people who have endured physical and psychological trauma after surviving one of the most brutal humanitarian disasters of our generation.

Syria Relief and Development | 7

Without a personal connection to the Syrian crisis, it’s easy to view the people affected as subjects of tragic news stories. Yet, one month after returning home from Amman I now see that—like many other people—I was desensitized by countless news images of death and destruction in global conflicts. I was oblivious to the emotional impact warfare inflicts on the innocents who watch from the sidelines. It was easy and convenient for me to tune out news from Syria or any other global crisis and resume my life uninterrupted. My internship, however, opened my eyes to the reality that each day that has gone by of the more than three years of Syria’s crisis has been one of unimaginable loss for countless people.

That even after many refugees flee the violence of their homeland, they are confronted by a plethora of economic, medical and social challenges, such as residing in temporary and often worn down living spaces. That the vast majority of people engulfed in this conflict are children. And that despite their pain and suffering, Syrians still endure and dream of a better future.

Loss and Gain I interviewed an elderly woman who lost multiple adult children in the brutality of barrel bombing. I witnessed the bravery of a Homsi man who defected from the Syrian security forces and endured eight months of torture in a government prison before escaping with his family to Amman. I saw many children who had not only sustained physical injuries but also suffered from a host of mental health issues that often went untreated. Some people had become so psychologically fractured by their losses that they seemed to resemble shadows of people who slipped into the background and seemed mentally absent. On the other hand, I met many Syrians who joked and laughed and took it upon themselves to lift the spirits of fellow refugees in spite of their own personal difficulties. Although I often ended the day feeling emotionally spent, coming this close to an issue I had only previously encountered through news stories made me aware of the crisis on a more personal level. I gained awareness and sensitivity to the plight of these strong people who had faced tremendous loss.

8 | To Syria, With Love

Israa The faces of the many different Syrian refugees I met are etched in my mind. One woman’s testimony of how her peaceful life in Homs was uprooted by violence stands out to me. Israa approached me and a co-worker—who served as my English-Arabic translator—during our visit to the trauma center.

It was unusual for people to approach us directly; Syrian women were often reserved and many refugees were afraid appearing on media could risk their family’s safety or chances of one day returning to Syria. But something compelled Israa to speak up.

Israa’s family used to live in a diverse neighborhood in Homs where people of various cultural backgrounds coexisted in peace. When civil war erupted in Syria and it became common to witness civilian massacres on street corners, the government targeted Israa’s family. She received warnings from her neighbors that her family was being targeted and needed to flee the violent fate of so many other Syrians.

Israa’s family decided to leave the only life they had ever known and make the perilous journey to Amman. The last image she remembers of her home is the blood-stained shirt of an old family friend, lying in the middle of a street. For years, this friend visited Israa’s home weekly until one week the visits stopped and Israa feared the worst. That shirt—the last disturbing trace of their friend’s once-vibrant life—served as yet another reminder that her home was forever changed.

There are millions of stories like this and many of them represent far more extraordinary circumstances. But the all-too-real emotions Israa expressed,

She was simply asking

to be understood as a fellow human being.

Israa’s story of devastating loss reflects that of thousands of Syrian refugees who have been forced to flee their homes, leaving behind friends, family and the only life they’ve ever known.

which had once seemed distant and inaccessible through the lens of a television screen, evoked me.

She still struggled to accept that her beautiful life in Syria had crumbled within the blink of an eye.

She cried when she told us her son could not enter the second grade and complete another year of school. She felt suffocated when she watched a news program on the Syrian crisis, which constantly reminded her that she and her family were refugees and could not go back to Syria even if they wanted.

By exposing her vulnerability and allowing us to share her testimony, Israa was not looking for sympathy. She did not expect pity and was not making a plea for help, despite the many medical and physical needs her family faced. She was simply asking to be understood as a fellow human being.

Humanizing the Crisis More than 170,000 people have died within this crisis, which is without a doubt an appalling number, but Israa’s one story was enough for me to glimpse the trauma of the Syrian crisis in a much more powerful way than any statistic could convey. It is impossible for all of us to travel to countries with

refugees, meet Syrians and hear their personal testimonies first hand. But that is not necessary to restore humanity to this tragedy. What is possible is to make a conscious effort to view the Syrian crisis within the context of real human lives instead of statistics, political factors or the subject of just another news story.

On some level, it will always be difficult to overcome desensitization, because violence has become embedded in our minds as an everyday reality and digestible through a television or computer screen.

It is okay, however, to accept that we have become desensitized to warfare from the safety of our homes so long as we try to refocus our attention to the impact on human life. With the many resources at our disposal, we have a unique opportunity to alleviate the suffering of Syrians by supporting the efforts of organizations and non-profit groups providing relief and investing in development within Syria. The first step to making this change is to accept the Syrian crisis as a humanitarian tragedy that has affected people like us. This will help us realize a future of greater solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Syria and around the globe.

Syria Relief and Development | 9

Remembering the anniversary of Syria’s chemical attack

by Matthew Timmerman

t 2:30 a.m. on the morning of August 21, 2013, statements circulated on Twitter of a chemical attack in a Damascus suburb; within days 1,500 individuals were reported dead. It was an event that proved—even in the context of a war killing 5,000 a month—that the use of chemical weapons warranted special attention.

As we look back on this day one year later, a panoptic view reveals how the August 21st chemical attack changed the narrative on Syria. A situation first described as an uprising, then later civil-war, became a humanitarian crisis in large part due to what occurred on that morning in late August.

While graphic post-attack footage caught the public’s attention, images of the crisis more broadly were responsible for sustaining interest in the following weeks. Major news programs showed video of emaciated children boiling leaves in besieged neighborhoods and refugee camps overflowing with new arrivals.

Those same images can be found today. The children are one year older, the camps even larger. If the sarin gas attack last August brought Syria’s war to the American public, its anniversary should serve as a reminder that the conflict continues. During just two days in July, a record 700 casualties were reported following intense fighting east of Homs. Meanwhile, the benchmark figures continue to grow: 11 million in need of aid, 3 million refugees in neighboring countries, 6.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and well over 150,000 dead.

Amid other crises, bringing attention to Syria is a nuanced and at times sensitive pursuit. During a recent conversation with an Iraqi refugee, I explained

10 | To Syria, With Love

my work at Syria Relief and Development. His poignant response: “What about Iraq’s relief and development? What are you doing?” Lacking an answer as compelling as the question, I told the man other organizations were helping Iraq, that both crises were severe but we only had the capacity to work on one. I thought back on the conversation later, wondering whether he’d found my answer satisfactory.

Prioritizing crisis response based on need is the hard reality of aid work. Commenting on these competing needs in Syria and Iraq, World Vision’s Ekkehard Vorberg recently remarked, “Even if the conflicts are interconnected – the situation in Syria is still much worse than it is in Iraq. There, the humanitarian catastrophe has persisted for several years.

Children are uprooted there. Refugees have been displaced multiple times.” Vorberg’s raw insight is likely true and certainly discomforting.

With the sarin gas attack one year removed and the most dangerous chemicals now neutralized, it’s an appropriate moment to contemplate the broader global response to the Syrian crisis. The chemical attack a year ago was a surprising tragedy. While the threat of this event repeating itself has been eliminated, the all too predictable humanitarian catastrophe continues. It too, deserves a response as robust as that undertaken in response to August 21st.

his STORY

Abu Hamzeh

SRD Refugee Hospital Medical Assistant

by Tatiana Sibaai

I interviewed SRD Medical Assistant Abu Hamzeh after hearing about his incredible story of struggle and survival in Syria. Describing the horrors he saw working as a medical assistant in Homs in the early stages of the conflict, the man known by his colleagues and peers as Abu Hamzeh displays a somber reconnaissance on his face. As he recounts one of his first experiences facilitating treatment for the injured at a hospital in Homs, he describes a scene of sheer chaos.

Following the attack on a nearby mosque, 77 injured people were brought to the emergency hospital where Abu Hamzeh was stationed. After countless hours of intensive medical treatment, 67 patients were saved and able to see another day in the conflict-ridden country they called home.

Abu Hamzeh told me about other experiences during his time in Homs, describing scenes most have only witnessed in the most graphic of cinematic productions. From hospital room floors covered with injured people awaiting treatment to carloads of people being shoveled into a low-staffed emergency room, each story continued to pierce at my emotions.

I asked Abu Hamzeh about the trauma he witnessed and how patients and their families coped with the trauma. He took a moment and then carefully spoke to me about the psychological impact of providing medical treatment in Syria during conflict. He described several instances where he had to transport patients to houses outside of the city, taking obscure roads where they wouldn’t have to stop at checkpoints. They began doing this after the hospitals

became surrounded by security and reports of injured people being killed while seeking treatment became increasingly common. He told me of a young man who was brought into the hospital to be treated for a bullet wound. When Abu Hamzeh and the anesthesiologist started to administer medication, the young man was so traumatized that he was shaking violently. It took 7 hospital staff members to hold him down long enough to subdue him.

The most grasping of stories that Abu Hamzeh told me was of his own escape from Syria. As he began to speak of his last day in the hospital before leaving Syria, his tone shifted from one of passive recollection to assertive hesitance. He explained how there were only 6 people on staff in the hospital that day, including doctors, nurses and medical assistants. At this point, they were accustomed to sleeping in the hospital, as it was often not safe to make the journey home or there were too many injured patients to treat.

In the early hours of the morning on a spring day in May 2012, Abu Hamzeh remembers hearing the sounds of bombs eerily close by. He looked outside to find tanks heading directly toward the hospital.

He recalls running through the empty halls of the emergency room to make sure all staff members were accounted for. Still in their pajamas, the hospital’s staff members piled into Abu Hamzeh’s pick-up truck and quickly fled the hospital. The next day, Abu Hamzeh, his wife and two children reluctantly packed their bags and left Syria for Jordan.

That same day, the hospital where Abu Hamzeh had worked for over 10 years was heavily bombed, leaving not a single hospital bed in tact.

Syria Relief and Development | 11

Women in Syria:

Thousands of Syrian women struggle to find maternal health services and products, resulting in dangerous conditions for the mothers and their babies from the time of conception.

ver three years of civil war has caused a destruction in the health infrastructure in Syria with women and children at the forefront of the suffering. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that women and children account for up to 75 percent of Syrian refugees—a number on the rise as one Syrian baby is born a refugee roughly every hour, joining the nearly six million Syrian children being raised in an environment of violence and despair. Many mothers flee Syria with their children to neighboring countries hoping to obtain medical attention at facilities set up to treat Syrian refugees.

Increased Pregnancy Risks Among Syrian Women 12 | To Syria, With Love

At a time when the population is most vulnerable due to the ongoing violence, destruction, and displacement, a severe shortage of medical facilities, trained health workers, and essential health resources

OF MOTHERHOOD

by Dena Elian

for Syrians can be found both inside and outside of the war zone. This includes a lack of maternal health services and products, which creates dangerous conditions for mothers and their babies from the time that they are conceived.

In April of this year, UNFPA estimated that there were approximately 372,000 pregnant women inside Syria, 17,000 pregnant Syrian refugees in Lebanon, 13,000 in Turkey, and 11,000 in Jordan. The prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care currently made available to displaced Syrians and Syrian refugees will reach only a painfully small fraction of these women and their babies. To add to the risks of pregnancy posed by the physical and environmental outcomes of war, the stress and anxiety suffered by Syrian women frequently results in an early labor and other health concerns.

Women living under blockaded areas inside Syria are at a much greater risk of dying as a result of preventable pregnancy complications. Often times these complications are connected to malnourishment or vitamin and mineral deficiencies, such as anemia, which can lead to hemorrhaging or delivering prematurely. Living under siege means many women don’t have access to a specialized doctor. In order to reach medical care, a journey that includes roadblocks, checkpoints and other conflict hazards–which often discourage women from seeking care–must first be completed. To further limit medical accessibility, many women will refuse to see a doctor unless the doctor is a female. Without routine medical checks, proper prenatal supplements and emergency obstetric care, pregnancy in Syria’s besieged areas puts both the mother and her unborn child at an alarmingly high risk of fatality.

As seen in countries previously affected by conflict,

the state of Syria’s health system will likely result in long-lasting effects on maternal and infant mortality.

Lack of access to information about services is also an issue. While facilities where women are able to give birth under proper medical care do exist, pregnant women often have no idea where to find them. As an outcome, mothers are often left to give birth alone without trained assistance. The risks of delivering at home without a skilled birth attendant are incredibly high in general, and even higher where living conditions are cramped and often unsanitary—posing dangers for pregnant women.

Once they are born, babies enter a hazardous environment where the side effects of war become highly evident. During the grueling winter months, premature babies have reportedly died due to the unpredictable electricity’s failure to support their incubators. Though a high percentage of babies are being born prematurely or with defects that require close surveillance from a doctor, moms and babies are discharged from the hospital immediately because they are unable to afford to stay longer than a day.

An alarmingly high number of babies are being born to Syrian women with a variety of malformations. One in particular is a condition called anencephaly, which causes the baby to be born without a major portion of the brain, skull and scalp. Babies born with anencephaly often die immediately after birth. It is suspected that many of these conditions are due to inadequate prenatal nutrition or supplementation.

The shattering situation for Syrian women who are living as victims of the ongoing civil war will have a devastating ripple effect on generations of Syrians to come.

Syria Relief and Development | 13

Keeping Syria on Our Minds

Bringing the sidelined conflict back into the headlines

by Matthew Timmerman

14 | To Syria, With Love

espite a dramatic evolution of news media through the last half-century, one reality has changed very little: media dictates our perception of what is important.

Bernard Cohen best described this phenomenon in his 1963 publication of The Press and Foreign Policy, stating, “the press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” Today, Twitter breaks headlines almost instantaneously and the practice of waiting for news until evening network programming seems archaic. But the central objective of news media is the same now as it was before: to tell the people what matters and the conflict in Syria has given new relevance to this fact.

For more than three years, the public has been shown and told that the crisis in Syria matters. But even when Syria has been in the spotlight, the complexities of the crisis have, at times, left onlookers confused and paralyzed with inaction. In March, the New York Times investigated this phenomenon in an article appropriately titled, “Complexity of Conflict Leaves Donors Wary of Aiding Syrians.” Reflecting

The daughters of a wounded Syrian woman stand by her side at the Refugee Health and Trauma Center in Amman, Jordan.

this sentiment in the article, humanitarian aid scholar David Rieff went so far as to argue that in Syria “you couldn’t have a worse set of conditions in the history of humanitarian mobilization.”

As challenging as this perception crisis may prove, Syria deserves to be thought about. Nonetheless, recent focus has shifted to developments in other Middle East countries and the plight of other residents in the region, including those in Iraq and Gaza. As a humanitarian organization, Syria Relief and Development (SRD) recognizes the plight of those in need, wherever they may be. This consciousness in mind, SRD remains dedicated to the situation in Syria, regardless of its presence in the headlines.

The efforts of aid organizations working in Syria are even more important during periods when the crisis is pushed to the sideline. In addition to providing humanitarian aid, these organizations can serve as voice boxes and advocates for Syrians in need. As the intensity of media coverage is bound to fluctuate, it’s important for the aid community to put forth its own voice.

The aid community has reached a critical time. Not since before the Ghouta chemical attack on August 21, 2013 has the Syria crisis been so distant from public attention. It’s a phenomenon at odds with events on the ground. During just two days in July, a record 700 casualties were reported following intense fighting east of Homs—a tragic outcome largely unreported by international media.

With so many people at risk and in need, it’s crucial all actors involved in the Syria relief effort rally to raise awareness. One way this can be done is the promotion of uplifting humanitarian news and stories. A recent example is the July passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2165 which opened four new border crossings from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq to increase aid delivery into Syria. Not only is the resolution likely to improve conditions on the ground in Syria, it signals growing uniformity among the international community in the effort to assist.

It’s a story fully worthy of media attention, one capable of building momentum for the cause. With so many images of suffering from Syria, sometimes those keeping the crisis on their consciousness need not just news, but something uplifting.

Syria Relief and Development | 15

SYRIA RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT PO Box 25446 Overland Park, KS 66225

SyriaReliefandDevelopment.org

LOOK INSIDE

FOR YOUR 2014 UDHIYAH QURBANI Donation Brochure!