This is a different blog today and it is an appeal-
Howard Zinn said “War in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.”
We at Caravan-Serai Tours and Salaam Cultural Museum have joined other international organizations in trying to help the innocent people of Syria: the women and children that have gotten caught in the middle of this horrible war and the devastation of their country. Some refugee children arrive alone, having lost both parents. Many are sick or injured. All of the children are traumatized.
Today I am hoping that you will be able to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria that have fled to Jordan, Lebanon and other countries to escape the catastrophic violence. Most of these people are living in make shift camps along the Syrian borders. The weather is starting to change and soon we will be into winter. This war is not going to stop anytime soon.
Yesterday, I and members of the Syrian community met with our Congressman, Jim McDermott here in Seattle. We are asking him to help us with some of the problems in the refugee camps. We also talked about taking a delegation over once the US elections are finished and conduct a fact finding mission to see what is really happening in the camps. One of the main problems that we are requesting help with is getting Syrian-American doctors inside the camps to help with basic health needs like high blood pressure, asthma attacks from the dust storms, diabetics, etc. The doctors that are with the big NGO’s have their mobile hospitals in the camps, but they are inundated with those who arrive with war injuries. When a child arrives with a traumatic injury from shelling or a sniper, it is hard to focus on those with less immediate conditions. We have requested from our Congressman to see about letting us bring in donations to the camps immediately when they arrive and not have to wait for clearance and security checks. We are also asking for the people to start to govern themselves and that groups of 5,000 to 10,000 have a leader or representative and that person will be in charge of the needs of that community. It will make it easier to ensure no one is left out. We also want to make sure that there is no trafficking of children, which is a very real threat during times of war. The Congressman said he would see what he could do and would present to his fellow members of Congress.
In the previous blog we had listed the items needed and the cost of those items that the big NGO’s are not dealing with and we hope to be able to help the people by buying these items in Jordan and getting them distributed by the first week of November.
Thank you all for your help and assistance – any amount you can give will be a help.
~Rita Z.
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