Syrian Border - 15 February

Maggie Tookey, a Syrian Relief volunteer for EDA

Diary - Wednesday 15th February

For the first time today I was able to visit the new school we've just built near the three biggest camps in the town. It takes 760 Syrian refugee children from Grades 1 (6 years old) to Grade 12 (18 years old). There are two shifts - the older students attend the morning session and the younger children in the early afternoon. The teachers have only received a one off payment of 100$ in the last 6 months - the donor who had been paying their salaries has stopped but still they come in every day to teach - they say that the job is too important to stop.

The place is happy and thronging with hundreds of children. On my visit it seems full of happy faces and the classes I pay a surprise visit to are well ordered and very organised. I do the usual thing - fire simple questions at them in English about their names and ages and they chirp the answers back, some of them in a shy whisper and some with a confident strength. It feels good to have provided a place for so many to learn.

It's started snowing but next I move on to a Syrian children's disabled centre. Two of the volunteer staff came to see us yesterday desperate for some help. They had no heating oil left and the 3000$ donation they had received 3 months ago to cover everything for the 140 badly physical and mentally disabled children, had run out. They had been using what little money of their own they had to buy oil for the classroom stoves and the owner of the building was demanding this months rent. I took Huda, our Lebanese Centre manager with me and we were both very touched by the dedication of the volunteer team here - these children are a challenge and the parents can do little for them in their camps. There were amputees from the shelling, blind, deaf and dumb, autistic, severe and not so severe - they would have received special care in Syria before the war - if this centre in Arsal didn't exist they would get nothing. So we must help even if it's a stop gap payment - we are their last resort. It's the least the staff deserve.

Then another desperate plea for help. It never stops. We examine each urgent plea and they all deserve assistance but we must prioritise. I move to a Syrian school struggling on with 1000 students. It's minus 4 degrees with a bitter wind blowing across the plateau and they have no heating oil left for the classrooms. They already manage with no electricity even in the darkness of these winter days but heating oil is a basic need. Central heating is a distant dream for any school and actually only exists in one hospital in the town. All the teachers and pupils are wrapped in as many layers of clothing as possible. The story is the same. A private donor had been supplying fuel but then just stopped. 400$ a week keeps the classrooms heated to a tolerable level - we give 3 weeks supply and hope the weather warms up by then! It's all we can do. Better than nothing.

Then we get news of some families arriving into the town from the Islamic State stronghold of Raqaa in Syria. They have escaped and made their way here via the mountain route. The journey is extremely dangerous but I guess that what they left behind was worse. Other Arsal refugee families take them in to their tents but they need food, clothing, bedding - someone comes to our team in our centre and immediately all these items are loaded into a small truck from our store room and taken to the new arrivals at a host camp. Apparently, they are just happy to be here. It's cold and uncomfortable and crowded but it's safe.

How many more requests for help will we get tomorrow? I feel like hiding. We just can't help everyone.