Transcript Welcome to SOS Children’s Villages

Welcome to SOS Children’s Villages
Syria
SOS Children have worked in Syria since 1981
There are 2 SOS Children’s Villages:
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Qodsaya
Near Damascus
Cares for children in family houses
Children go to school and have lots of
opportunities
Has an SOS Youth Home for those nearing
independence.
Aleppo
Opened in 1998
Has 12 family houses
Has an SOS Nursery which looks after
children from the local community too
Has links to an SOS Youth Home run
specifically for girls
Has its own Social Centre which runs
community outreach programmes such as
vocational training.
This is Amjad…
Amjad is a refugee.
Amjad
• Amjad had to flee his home after shells fell
in front of his house.
‘I no longer want to go back home, I am
afraid of going back there. I used to hide in
the kitchen between the oven and the
fridge, on the floor. I closed by ears with
my fingers so that I didn’t hear the shelling
and shooting. I will never go back to our
old house, we were so scared there’.
Amjad, aged 12
What is a refugee?
• 2 million Syrians are currently classed as
refugees and half of these are children.
But what is a refugee?
• A person who has been forced to leave
their country in order to escape war,
persecution, or natural disaster. Many of
them cannot return home or are afraid to
do so.
Syrian refugees
• 2 million refugees.
• 720,000 in Lebanon, 520,000 in Jordan,
464,000 in Turkey (August 2013)
• 1 million child refugees, 740,000 under the
age of 11.
• The majority live in refugee camps.
Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan
Source: AP
Life as a refugee
• Refugee camps often become ‘home’ - many refugees end up living
in refugee camps for years
• Refugees need, and have a right to, all the things we do – shelter,
food, clean water, medical care and education.
• But, it is difficult to provide these things in a refugee camp:
- Lack of infrastructure
- Poor transport and communications
- Limited money
- Limited space
- Language barriers
• Schools are very basic
Life as a refugee:
Separation
Many refugee children end up alone:
• Chaos of escape means children
easily lose their parents and
families.
• In Syria, many children have lost
parents in the conflict.
• These children have to grow up
fast missing out on their
childhood.
Life as a refugee:
Food & health
• Many refugees go hungry or eat a
restricted diet
• Diseases spread easily
• Limited medical facilities and not many
trained doctors and nurses
Life as a refugee:
Education
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Children who flee in fear often have
special problems
School helps them overcome this - it
symbolises normality
They can learn about their own culture
and country and spend time with other
children
Education becomes a symbol of hope
Classrooms are very basic – a tent or
small building
Lessons are often held outside
There are often no desks and children sit
on the floor
There are very few textbooks and
stationary
Internally displaced people
An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced to flee
from his or her home for the same reason as a refugee, but has not left his or
her own country.
Unlike refugees, IDPs are not protected by international law or eligible to
receive many types of aid.
SOS Children supporting IDPs
•Families are living in tiny rooms
all over Syria, displaced from
their homes.
•They have left everything
behind & everyday survival is a
struggle.
•Finding milk to feed babies and
young children is especially
difficult as food prices are rising
and transport links are
destroyed.
•SOS Children is supporting
displaced families, providing
them with things like milk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1uNQixff94
•Just £7.50 stands between
families and buying enough milk
to feed their infants.