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LEBANON / SYRIAN REFUGEES
STORY: LEBANON / SYRIAN REFUGEES
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL 2012, NORTHERN LEBANON
1. Various shots, religious centre housing refugees
2. Various shot, refugee family
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) ‘Siham’ Syrian refugee:
“Everything is very difficult. There are no clothes for the kids. Our daily routine is just this room. Or down in the yard, which is very noisy.”
4. Various shots, refugee centre
5. Various shots, refugee woman making tea
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) ‘Om Hashem’ Syrian Refugee:
“The landlord has been extremely kind. He treats me like every other member of his family and we are not missing anything. I do receive some assistance but life is very expensive here and our currency is different. Everything is very expensive. I do need extra money, despite the donations. The landlord is treating us really well. He treats my children as if they’re his own. He doesn’t let anyone hit them or yell at them. He’s like a father to them."
7. Wide shot, Syrian border
8. Various shots, refugee families
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Maria Laurini, UNICEF Representative, Lebanon:
“The generosity of these communities – which are themselves very poor – is really remarkable. And UNICEF, together with the international community is helping those communities to mitigate the impact of the Syrian families that are now living with them.”
10. Various shots, children playing in yard
This religious centre in the far north of Lebanon is being put to another use.
It’s providing shelter to some of the growing number of Syrian families that have come to Lebanon to escape the violence that’s sweeping their homeland.
This couple and their five children occupy a single room at the shelter. Life is not easy. The older ones found it difficult to settle in the local school, and there’s little else for them to do.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) ‘Siham’ Syrian Refugee:
“Everything is very difficult. There are no clothes for the kids. Our daily routine is just this room. Or down in the yard, which is very noisy.”
Cramped and basic these surroundings may be, but they underline the vital contribution being made by local communities, many of whom are providing the Syrians arriving in their midst with food, shelter and other basic supplies at little or no cost.
In a border village further to the north, we met another Syrian mother, who, along with her three children, has been taken in by a local family.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) ‘Om Hashem’ Syrian refugee:
“The landlord has been extremely kind. He treats me like every other member of his family and we are not missing anything. I do receive some assistance but life is very expensive here and our currency is different. Everything is very expensive. I do need extra money, despite the donations. The landlord is treating us really well. He treats my children as if they’re his own. He doesn’t let anyone hit them or yell at them. He’s like a father to them."
From the window of her home, Syria is only a stone’s throw away. This proximity and longstanding ties of kinship have helped absorb the families coming across the border. But the strain is starting to tell.
SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Maria Laurini, UNICEF Representative, Lebanon:
“The generosity of these communities, which are themselves very poor, is really remarkable. And UNICEF, together with the international community is helping those communities to mitigate the impact of the Syrian families that are now living with them.”
Indeed, with no end in sight to the crisis in Syria, addressing the needs of those now sheltering not just in Lebanon but also in Turkey and Jordan is becoming ever more urgent.
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