Today’s post is from Soles4Souls’ CEO, Buddy Teaster:
I try to keep up with world events. I read the Economist, listen to NPR and have my google homepage set to find stories of national and international importance. Yet somehow, I have just realized the scale of the humanitarian crisis in and around Syria. Shame on me.
Since the conflict started, estimates are that 1.5 million people (three times the population of Nashville!) have fled the country for neighboring countries like Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq among others. People are now leaving at the rate of about 50,000 per week. And while no one knows for sure, consensus is forming that aproximately 90,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war there. That’s about as many people that died after the nuclear bomb hit Hiroshima. I don’t possess the intelligence and knowledge to know how to address the political and military problems and you can find mountains of opinion, all over the political spectrum, about what the US and other governments should be doing, the role of the UN and what it means for peace in the Middle East.
(image from CNN.com)
I’m not a politician, soldier or think tank guy, but this excellent story about the flood of people desperate to escape the fighting while devastated to leave their homes, really hit me. You can read it for yourself: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/04/181053781/a-place-transformed-the-birth-of-a-jordanian-refugee-camp. It is definitely worth 11 minutes to listen to this piece or even less to read the transcript.
As usual, most of the refugees are women and children. Hearing the story of a mother carrying her one year old for nine hours across mountains to get to a safer place, (they wait until the bombing is really close before leaving), moved me. While safer, most of the refugees know they are really not welcome when they arrive because of the stress they’re putting on infrastructure, health care, education, even water. And now that they’re competing in an already poor job market, the refugees’ willingness to work for less is causing real tension. The fact that they keep coming is a testimony to people’s, including those at middle and the very bottom of the pyramid, willingness to sacrifice everything for their families’ safety.
I don’t know yet how Soles4Souls is going to help by providing new shoes and clothes. We’re working on finding the right partners on the ground and it will be very expensive to product to such a dangerous part of the world. But just like when Soles4Souls responded to the earthquake in Haiti or after Super Storm Sandy, we are still committed to doing our part to make a difference for those suffering from natural and manmade disasters.
Fundamentally, I’m an optimist. You need to be an optimist in order to do be in this field. Although people do the right thing far more often than the wrong thing, injustice and calamity are also woven into our lives and we have to fight them every day. We’ll keep you updated on what we’re doing in the region and how you can help.