Syrian Border 11 February

Maggie Tookey, a Syrian Relief volunteer for EDA

Diary - Saturday 11th February

Arsal - Syrian border

We've been here 3 days now and already it feels like 3 months

So on Saturday we went down to our distribution centre to watch what was a very positive but ultimately sad operation in the cold dark space below a mosque which is the destination for all our humanitarian aid deliveries from the UK. It's the only space of suitable size we have been able to rent. A seemingly never ending trail of refugees line up when called by our team - in they come but only 5 families at a time - I've seen other Aid distributions get quickly out of hand when people are desperate. We must not let this happen and our team is expert after dealing with around 100 tons of aid now sent by EDA. They show empathy and sensitivity - they themselves are refugees but have the advantage of a small salary from EDA.

It's easy to forget when looking at this line of cold and long suffering people from Syria waiting patiently for their turn to choose much needed items of clothing particularly for their children, that they all had homes, jobs, a social life, good food on the table, schooling, universities, good medical care. Many in this line are engineers, electricians, teachers, nurses, doctors, IT consultants - professional people with a good standard of living. Now all that is gone and they find themselves standing in this line waiting for a 'hand out' in the grey drizzle of a February winters day. It's degrading no matter how much we try to make it like shopping and no matter how much we try to show our understanding. I never get used to this sight despite the number of times I've seen it. It still upsets me.

However, our workshop/vocational training centre is a much more uplifting experience to witness. It's nice, perhaps even a relief to spend time in this hive of activity where many women from the camps are making a range of craft/knitted/woven items on the machinery and materials brought out by EDA. It's also a social hub - a place to get away from the misery and deprivation of camp life and we sit around the oil stove for two hours discussing how we can improve aspects of the workshop and how the women can increase the small income they already earn from contracts we have found for them. It's relaxing and we feed off their enthusiasm.

Equally uplifting is the activity going on in the other rooms in the centre. Each room is filled with young men and women - they are all involved in various vocational training courses - domestic electrical wiring - plumbing - basic computer courses - graphic design, literacy classes and mobile phone repair instruction. All these courses have a practical component and we have overwhelming demand from young people and some who are older, who want to enrol. We can't meet the demand. We keep trying and we will continue to try to expand but we don't have an endless supply of funding. This programme is so important - the temptation for young men with little future hope, to slip through the check points and join the militants, is very great.

As winter darkness falls we hear the usual sound of Lebanese army shelling from the 'no man's land' outside the town where the militant groups inhabit their hideouts and endure the cold.

Tomorrow we go to see our new school in full teaching mode. It's exciting - this is one of our bigger projects. 760 refugee school children being educated must be a good thing!