The stories that come from Syria tell us about the difficulties that we try to overcome starting from human relationships.
The aid projects for the sick in Homs and Kafarbo, also supported by UBI – Unione Buddhisti italiani, tell us about the suffering of the sick, but above all about reciprocity, between operators and beneficiaries, in an exchange rich in multiple forms of resources: material goods, time, skills, ideas, new relationships, the discovery of the wealth of the other. It is not easy to get up every day and be able to put aside one’s own difficulties to offer support, help and an open heart to those who spend their days in great suffering. Meeting people who have truly lost everything, due to the war, and who have to face situations of serious illness or poverty, is not easy. What drives the operators and volunteers of the assistance and health projects in Syria, however, is the drive to rediscover the great dignity and great potential of each person, mortified by the war. “We try to enter into the life of the other to know his human riches, we establish a relationship with him as equals, we try to create an exchange, a reciprocity. And starting from this equal dignity, let’s try to exchange our poverty and our riches. Everyone has a heart, life and experiences to give and share with others.” These are the words that one of the operators of the “Syria Emergency” program writes to tell us about their work. This is the core of their commitment and what, very often, the people who come into contact with them ask for first and foremost. Like Jamile, a widowed woman with no children, with serious difficulties: financial problems, diabetes (which makes it very difficult for her to even walk), high blood pressure and recently also suffering from cancer; when she met the operators of the program, she first of all spoke to them a lot about her loneliness. In addition to providing her with the many medicines she has to take, they then understood that the most important thing for her would be their presence, their visits, their listening and their comfort. “Many of the people who turn to us – continues the story of a project manager – have lost everything, first and foremost their homes and find themselves living in makeshift accommodation. Nabih lives on a farm outside the city, in a house that lacks even the basic things for a dignified life and despite the dialysis, necessary because of kidney cancer, he cultivates the little land available and asked us to spread the word to help him find new customers, so he can provide for his family independently”. Alina has also lost everything and is in extremely difficult conditions. She is alone and has three daughters, one of whom has mental disorders (she often runs away from home and Alina has to look for her or wait for someone to bring her back). The conditions of her house and her family are truly difficult. After initial food support and a small sum of money, an association was contacted that could support her more continuously and she, in her great humility and strength of spirit, thanked them and emphasized that: “You have opened your heart to me even if I am not a Christian, you have helped me without prejudice”. Very often, then, it is the patients themselves who give smiles and make them look to the future in a positive way. Tamam, for example, needs dialysis twice a week, comes from a poor family, and yet, in her heart she hopes for a kidney transplant that can give her back a normal life, so that she can work and help lift up her country and its people. And Maysa, who is recovering and has started taking care of herself again and now returns to the center with great vitality also to offer some of the little cheese she produces, as a sign of friendship and gratitude. Or Nuha: since her hair started growing again, after cancer treatment, she has been a source of energy and positivity and has started looking at life with new eyes. All these experiences demonstrate how each person can find within themselves and in relationships with others the will to escape the plague of precariousness and the strength to get back on track. Article published in AMU News 2019 3-4 by Tamara Awwad – AMU projects representative in Syria
