Scarf for life: she almost starved to death

For seven years, dear readers, you have been supporting Syrian refugee children with the fundraising campaign "A scarf for life". Please keep doing this. The situation is now so dire that mothers fear for their babies' lives.

There are pictures that manage to condense the drama of an entire country in a single moment. Photos like that of the little girl in a brightly colored dress sitting in the bowl of a scale, a shortbread biscuit in her hand, her gaze directed downward in front of her. It looks as if it would rather not be there, a small, unhappy crowd, not yet a year old.

Support for Syrian refugee children

Reem * is the name of the little girl. War means feeling hungry for them. She is visibly better now, but a few weeks ago she almost died from it.

For the seventh time, we ask you, dear readers, for your support for Syrian refugee children this year. And for the first time since we launched the "A scarf for life" campaign in 2014 together with the independent children's rights organization Save the Children, we are not turning our gaze to the neighboring countries, to the 5.6 million refugees who were in camps and temporary accommodation in Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey, but directly to Syria. We tell of the mothers and fathers who live as displaced persons in their own country and have to try to support their children under the most difficult of conditions, to provide them with food and education.

We got in contact with them through local aid organizations that Save the Children works with. Because of course we couldn't visit the families ourselves – not only because of the restrictions caused by Corona. Due to the ongoing war, the situation in northwest Syria is so uncertain that even NGOs only work at great risk. But we were able to speak to the staff on site, they brought our questions to the families, who answered in detail. Many of them feel forgotten by the world. Because Syria has almost disappeared from the news. The suffering with which the 6.2 million internally displaced persons – around 30 percent of the population – have to live, is silent.

Starving for a packet of milk

Reem lives with her family in a camp in Idlib in northwest Syria, the province with the highest number of internally displaced people. At least every second resident here has been displaced several times since the start of the war in 2011. The last big wave took place at the beginning of the year when government troops with Russian help wanted to bomb the final victory over the region. The rockets were also aimed at hospitals and residential buildings; around one million people, 60 percent of them children, fled to the nearby Turkish border. Many are still stuck there today because Turkey is keeping the crossings closed.

Reem's family also fled. Your village in rural Idlib was bombed years ago. Father Mazen, 44, used to cultivate his own land, parents and in-laws lived nearby, and the children went to school. The family had to flee from attacks several times, each time returning until their house was completely destroyed. "I still remember that it was raining that day and it was very cold," says Jude, 36, a very slender, young woman, mother of seven. "We fled into the mountains, knocked on the door of a house, but the woman who opened us wouldn't let us in. Until she saw that my children were almost frozen to death."

Five days after Reem's birth, the area they had fled to was also under attack and the family had to give way again. "Reem was born a healthy girl," says Jude, "but after a while she got weaker. I had the feeling that my breast milk wasn't enough. We went hungry so we could buy a packet of milk for her."

Ten million people depend on food aid

The family lives in a tent, under a simple tarpaulin, a mattress is the only piece of furniture. Nothing keeps the heat out in summer, nothing in winter the cold. Their poverty no longer deserves the term; the family is not poor, they have nothing left at all. "I've been here for 36 years, I've never felt so humiliated as I did these days," says Jude. Food is almost unaffordable for them; prices, which have been rising for years due to inflation in the country, have exploded since Lebanon, Syria's main business partner, collapsed economically in the spring. The simplest meal costs three dollars, a bread 32 cents. Priceless, not only because Mazen has not been able to find any jobs since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The family lives on $ 50 a month that a brother-in-law sends them from Lebanon.

Around ten million people, far more than every second inhabitant of Syria, depend on food aid, which does not reliably reach every camp. The number of children under five who die of malnutrition in Syria is steadily increasing, and aid organizations are constantly reporting new cases to the WHO.

Reems Rescue was a mobile feeding clinic run by Syria Relief and supported by Save the Children. The doctors came to the camp, saw Reem's living conditions and condition, and asked her mother to come with her for an examination. They measured the circumference of her middle upper arm and told Jude that their daughter was malnourished and what should be done now. "She only weighed five pounds," says Jude. "They gave me cookies, peanut butter, and vitamins for her."

Great risk of dying from malnutrition

The team looked after the child for months, slowly nursing it. "After a while, I saw Reem's appetite increase," says Jude. "She's already gained two pounds."

The risk that children will die of malnutrition is now real in the camps. The mobile clinic can examine around 60 children a day. The mothers receive nutritional supplements, a treatment plan and are informed about the correct corona hygiene. Many of the women first need to be motivated to breastfeed – fearing that their breast milk is insufficient, they try to feed their children yoghurt and other foods.

Jumana, 21, who lives in a camp further east, also experienced the dilemma. She was pregnant when she left her village and her home was hit by a mortar shell. At first she and her husband rented a demolished house in a nearby town, then they could no longer afford that either and moved to a refugee camp. Two months after she arrived, Jumana gave birth to their first child, Hiyam.

No hygiene measures in the camps

Jumana says there was a rumor in the camp that breast milk was not enough for babies because the mothers themselves were malnourished. The family sold parts of their rations to buy baby food, but it was not enough. "I borrowed money a couple of times," says Jumana, "but my husband didn't want that because we couldn't pay the money back, he has no chance of getting a job. My only option was to give Hiyam a water-sugar -Mixture and sometimes yogurt. I know of course that she needs nutritious food, but we can't afford it. Not in these difficult times. "

She was also helped by a mobile nutrition team after they discovered that Hiyam was severely malnourished due to diarrhea from the sugar water. After more than two months, Hiyam's condition slowly improved. Then she got diarrhea again due to the hygienic conditions in the camp. Whether she will make it is an open question, she is still being treated. "I'm afraid for her," says Jumana. "She is malnourished and has a very weak immune system. I don't know if she can survive if she ever gets Corona."

It cannot protect them from the virus; Hygiene measures do not exist when something as basic as water is lacking, and the cramped conditions in the overcrowded camps make it impossible to keep your distance. Nobody adheres to the quarantine times – people who have recovered to some extent immediately start looking for work again.

Meaning of life: Trying to get everyone through

Hala, 57, tries to support her children and grandchildren in a demolished house in rural Idlib. When her husband was alive, she only left her home to go to her parents' house. The building she now lives in doesn't even have a door. Everyone can come in; Hala and her children are completely defenseless. Nevertheless, she prefers to live here rather than in a refugee camp because of the tightness and the risk of infection. The house used to be a kind of rubbish collection point, there is no electricity or water. "We've been cleaning since we got here, but it's still barely habitable," she says. She is alone, widowed and does not get help from relatives.

Her biggest problem is getting medication for her son Aysar, 13, who has an intellectual disability after a cerebral hemorrhage and becomes so aggressive without medication that he starts beating his nephews and nieces. "The youngest is two months old, he almost strangled him once."

She received $ 120 as emergency aid from Save the Children, plus hygiene kits and benefits in kind. She bought a gas bottle for it, and bread, and the medicine for Aysar, "even if that means for us that we can buy less to eat".

She doesn't know how long $ 120 will last when everything is missing, she lives from one day to the next. The children do not go to school, they are at home all day, they squabble, they are bored. Her purpose in life, says Hala, is trying to get everyone through. Even so, it gives her hope to know that her story will be told in a German magazine. "Thank you for your help," she says at the end of the interview. "We don't want you to forget us. There are many people like us."

* All names changed to protect the refugees

Help for the kids

Malnutrition is a major threat to children in Syria. "But the situation is also particularly critical for girls," says Ahmed Bayram from Save the Children's regional office responsible for Syria. "Over two million children do not go to school and another 1.3 million are at risk of dropping out of school. The pressure on children is high in the face of economic uncertainty. Child labor, domestic violence, sexual exploitation and child marriage are real dangers for girls. The pandemic intensifies the situation continues. "

Save the Children has been helping in the region since the beginning of the Syria conflict. In Syria itself, the organization has helped almost 250,000 people so far in 2020, including almost 150,000 children. Child protection and education are particularly important, but the NGO supports families and the like. a. also with cash, hygiene education and materials for their accommodations.

Here you can find out more about the fundraising campaign "A scarf for life".

BRIGITTE 23/2020