It is for the children that all of us are working and helping and going on these missions. This is the next generation that is being destroyed – mentality and physically. Some of them are stronger than others and will come out of it, but the others that we see are so depressed with what has happened to them their families and friends that they just sit and stare.
You try and talk to them and make them laugh and it doesn’t work – they are empty. You get the feeling that they just want to curl up and die to get out of their misery. As we hear their stories and look at them and see how we can help it is impossible to have dry eyes. Each one of us sheds tears for what is happening and knowing the only way we can help is by being there and giving them love and attention that they need.
One little red haired boy that I saw in a clinic – he is 2 1/2 years old – and I was handing out candy and some toys and he would look at me and start to cry and cry and couldn’t stop. His mother told me that he is so scared of new people- she has to keep him close to her at all times. How is he going to handle life, what is going to happen to his parents as they try to deal with him?
I met another boy who was 10 years old and he kept telling me that mommy is always crying. Why is she so sad- what can I do? The amount of depression and anxiety among these people is unfathomable. They are living in abnormal conditions outside the camps in rooms that are small and cramped and have maybe 10 people in them, or more.
We went to one very small room where there was an older woman of about 60 and her husband – both very sick, he was in a chair and no one was helping them . They had no supplies, and the man could not even move himself to go to the bathroom, but no one was helping him and he had no one to clean him up. He had so many sores and the smell in the place was so bad. Their kids were in Syria and they sent the parents to Jordan thinking they would be helped- they got lost in the mass of humanity. We tried to help them and get them some care givers to stay and do the daily chores and get them some food, etc. We are only able to find these people through word of mouth, and who knows how many more there are needing the same kind of help. People have started hearing about our missions and when we are coming and they tell us where the Syrians that are not in the camps are staying. We send out a couple of people to check them out and see how we can help. Maybe it is paying their rent for 6 months and getting them food vouchers and making it a point for the volunteers that we have in Amman to go on a regular basis to check on them.
There is just not enough time in the day and not enough time in this mission to get things done. I am so worried when Ramadan arrives and the weather is so hot how people will survive in these cramped conditions. I believe that a lot of the big NGO’s are so over loaded that they do not see some of the same things that we are seeing when we come on these trips.
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