Yarmouk - desperate need for action!
Today in the news I stumbled upon the reality of the Yarmouk Camp based in Syria. What gave me the push for writing a short post about this camp were the pictures of needy young and old people crying out for help.
According to the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Work Agency) Yarmouk is one of the largest palestinian refugee camps in Syria established in 1957, lying 8 km away from Damaskus city with more than 148.500 refugees registered. Even though when hearing the words "refugee camps" one has the tendency to think of people living in very meager conditions, oddly enough the living community in this camp has been characterized by better living standards with professional workers ranging from doctors to engineers and facilities such as schools and hospitals. I must say that I was very impressed myself, in a good sense, when I read about these facts, without considering the fact that they were still refugees, but this is once more another political question which hasnt found the proper resonance up to now.
Since the Syrian Civil War has started the refugee camp has turned to be a battle field between the syrian rebels, their palestinian allies and the syrian army, with people losing their homes and their living foundations."I'm so tired, so tired" were the words of an old lady approaching a BBC correspondent. Exactly in these moments where you become aware of how good your life is when seeing other people starving or even dying and you think wow, I am so lucky and privileged, exactly at this time where you have a sort of wake-up call and consider your "everyday problems" to be so meaningless in front of the real struggle for life, and yeah hoping and trying to give a voice to these cryings and sufferings so that everyone can reflect even for one moment and maybe take some real action so that even a slight help to these people can make a visible change in the future.
The international community, particularly the western countries seem to be unanimous over the fact that more needs to be done for relieving the lives of these people in some way. I felt very touched from the words of the Unrwa's (United Nations Relief and Work Agency) commissioner-general talking to the people: "We wont forget you, the world wont forget you", because this is what the world needs to do right now.
The necessity to act is bigger than ever, refugees constitute an extreme vulnerable group who directly suffer and are subjected to some of the worst side effects of wars and destabilization. And of course everyone is fully aware of the fact that healthy societies contribute to a better global development.
Sources:
Syria crisis: A Palestinian plea from Yarmouk refugee camp. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26333533
UNRWA. http://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/syria/camp-profiles?field=16