Supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Unexpected answers to simple questions can be the most revealing.As I sat in the tent that is now her home in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, I asked 11-year-old Hoda when she last went to school in her homeland of Syria.

“A sniper came into our school and started killing people,” she responded without missing a beat. “We ran home. My parents started packing straight away. “As we were packing the bombs started falling. You can tell when there is going to be a terrible explosion because of the whistling noise that comes just before. I was very scared.”

Hoda, her parents and her six-year-old brother Yussuf have had to move several times since then, finally joining more than half a million Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon. Now they have found shelter in a small cluster of 20 orderly tents supervised by a refugee Syrian electrical engineer called Manhal.  

“I don’t have any friends from home,” Hoda said simply. “There’s no-one here I knew when I came.

She has 50 new friends to play with, children living in the 20 tents which Manhal is permitted to call a camp. He has worked miracles in getting permission for it from the Lebanese government, which is wary of allowing new refugee camps. He added to his success by getting support from civil society organisations and the United Nations.

I am proud that World Vision is among his partners, providing World Food Programme vouchers through our regular distributions, ensuring families can get the food they need. We are also offering the children laughter and special support through a Child Friendly Space run in partnership with a nearby mosque.

For most of the Syrian refugee children I met, the literal answer to the question I asked is that they have not been to school for months, and sometimes more than a year.  World Vision is employing refugee teachers to provide ‘accelerated learning’ programmes to help children catch up and get back to school.

The Syrian crisis and the world’s slow response to millions of refugees raise difficult questions. I pray that World Vision’s response is part of God's unexpected answer.