1. Abdullah gets check up by doctor in hospital
2. Close up, Abdullah’s face
3. Close up, Dr. Simon Veth
4. Med shot, Dr. Veth examines Abdullah's chest
5. Close up, Abdullah's face
6. SOUNDBITE (English), Dr. Simon Veth, “What we saw was that his thalassemia treatment was not good and without proper treatment the disease is lethal.”

FILE, RECENT LEBANON

7. Wide shot, Abdullah and his father walking down the street in Lebanon
8. Tracking shot, Abdullah and his father walking down the street in Lebanon
9. Wide shot, Abdullah's siblings play in the yard in front of their house
10. Wide shot, Abdullah's siblings play in the yard in front of their house
11. Abdullah and a friend talking
12. SOUNDBITE, (Arabic) Abdullah, “There wasn´t enough blood, we would go round all the mosques asking for blood but we couldn’t find any, then we would be late for the bloods transfusions and there was no medicine either. My heart was affected and I could barely walk.”
13. Various shots refugee registration in Lebanon
14. Wide shot, Abdullah's father and the family on the balcony in Lebanon
15. Close up, Abdullah's face
16. Close up, Abdullah's sister Anwar
17. Med shot, Abdullah’s father on the balcony
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Khoder, Abdullah’s father, “Here if you don´t cover all your needs, collecting blood and getting donators and covering the hospital fees and the medicine too, your son won’t live. He will die.”

17, 18 & 19, NOVEMBER 2014, GERMANY
19. Various shots, the family eating in their kitchen in Germany
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Abdullah, “Now I am walking a lot and playing and running and I don´t get tired…in Lebanon when I walked I got tired fast. I feel I have a future here, I can go to school. ¨
21. Various shots, family at the beach in Kiel

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Storyline

This is the third year of exile for Khoder Alayean and his family. Originally from Daraa in Northern Syria, they were internally displaced twice within Syria before fleeing to neighbouring Lebanon in 2012. In their first year in Lebanon, Khoder was able to find odd days’ work, but soon the situation became critical for him and his family. Two of Khoder´s children Abdullah, 17, and Anwar, 7, have thalassemia, a blood disorder where the body makes an abnormal form of haemoglobin.

Back in Syria their condition was stable through regular treatments consisting of blood transfusions and medicine, but in Lebanon Khoder was unable to meet the medical costs. What little help he initially got dried up and for the last six months of his stay in Lebanon, his children went untreated. Abdullah’s health became critical; an overload of iron in his system began to affect his heart and his pancreas.

In April 2014, the family were accepted for resettlement in Germany under Humanitarian Assistance Programme. They travelled to Kiel in Northern Germany and Abdullah and his sister went straight into treatment at the local hospital. Six months later, they are stable again. Abdullah is under close observation but his energy levels have returned. The rest of his brothers and sisters are at local school learning German, as are his parents. Had it not been for resettlement, Abdullah would not have survived.
Abdullah has monthly check ups at the Kiel university hospital.

More than 2 million Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon since the war in Syria began, placing a huge burden on this small Mediterranean country with a population of just 4.5 million.

UNHCR with local charities has worked to provide food vouchers, basic non- food items and financial assistance for primary health care.