Unable to enter refugee camps run by the United Nations, many Syrians
fleeing from violence in their home country have found basic
necessities and ongoing support from Catholic Relief Services in nearby
Lebanon.
“When they come, they have nothing,” said Joan Rosenhauer, who serves as
Catholic Relief Services’ executive vice president for U.S. Operations.
“You can hardly imagine what it’s like as a parent to go through this
with your children,” she told CNA in a Sept. 9 interview, reflecting
that the immensity of the refugee crisis “really strikes you when you
see all the women and children” in the camps.
According to the United Nations, more than two million Syrians have fled
the country, which has been entangled in a violent civil war for more
than two years.
In addition, more than four million people are estimated
to be internally displaced as a result of the fighting.
Ongoing discussions of possible Western military intervention in the
country have brought the Syrian crisis to the headlines in recent weeks,
after reports of chemical weapon use against civilians outside of
Damascus.
However, Rosenhauer warned that the plight of the refugees “can often get lost in this whole debate” over foreign policy.
She explained that “when people come, they’re often fleeing shelling”
from bombing operations in Syria, and they frequently “just grab their
children and run” across the border into neighboring countries,
including Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
Many people “are there with nothing,” she explained. “Because they often
leave without their identification, they often can’t even get into a
U.N. system.”
Many of those who cannot enter a U.N. refugee camp end up at informal
sites, such as the ones in Lebanon administered by Catholic Relief
Services, in conjunction with Caritas Lebanon.
Rosenhauer has visited some of these camps, where the international
Catholic agencies work to get basic necessities to those in need, who
are about 70 percent women and children.
These informal refugee camps do not receive official government aid, she
explained. Rather, they are able to exist because “people find a person
who is generous enough to give them land in the Beqaa Valley, and they
start collecting whatever they can.”
“We try to get them some basic things like a cooking pot, some basic
food, some cleaning supplies, blankets, some tarps,” she said.
Basic medical care and counseling are also important for refugees.
“They’ve lived through being in the middle of warfare, and then being
scooped up and having to cross mountains overnight,” facing
psychological trauma and a disruption of their lives, Rosenhauer
observed.
“In some of the camps we’re trying to create a place where children can
basically get counseling and…work through the trauma,” she said, and
“one of the next steps is making sure children who have been displaced
have access to schooling.”
As the conflict continues, the refugees will continue to need support, Rosenhauer stressed.
“People originally left their homes thinking it’s a short-term thing,
and now they’re realizing it’s not going to be, and they don’t even know
what the new normal can be,” she said.
“Everything is only going to be
worse if there are not resources to keep people living in at least the
most basic of situations.”
She added that this situation is important to keep in mind as discussion
of potential U.S. involvement continue, “because what’s going to happen
is it’s going to put more pressure on displaced people and more
pressure on the surrounding countries to take in refugees.”
Rosenhauer encouraged prayer for those fleeing, as well as those who are
still in Syria. She also stressed the importance of educating people
“about the situation with the refugees and the enormity of this
problem.”
Most of all, she said, it is important to ensure “when we’re talking about Syria that the humanitarian crisis doesn’t get lost.”