Syria

Gjenoppbygger liv og gjenoppretter håpet i Syria

Siden krigen brøt ut i Syria for ti år siden, har Flyktninghjelpen jobbet utrettelig for å beskytte og bistå de rammede – i Syria og i nabolandene.

Flyktninghjelpen er en av få humanitære organisasjoner som er til stede i hele Syria. Vi har levert ut telt og viktige forbruksvarer, reparert skoler og hjem og sørget for skolegang til barn og unge.

Etter hvert som konflikten har utviklet seg, har vi tilpasset vår respons. På denne måten har vi kunnet komme syrere på flukt i møte, men også samfunnene som har tatt dem imot. Hele veien har vi vært vitne til det syriske folkets styrke og mot. Vi har sett hvordan familier har støttet hverandre og forsøkt å ta fremtidshåpet tilbake.

Her er noen av disse historiene.

Malak hjelper småsøsknene sine med å takle det psykiske stresset. Stress som har blitt verre etter at skolene ble stengt og flyktningleiren gikk i lockdown, på grunn av Covid-19. Foto: Dan Wheeler/ Flyktninghjelpen

JORDAN: Mobil livlinje for Malak, 14

Da Covid-19 pandemien traff og skolen ble stengt, ble familiens eneste mobiltelefon en livlinje for Malak (14) og de syv søsknene hennes.

Bare 12 dager etter at det første tilfellet av Covid-19 ble oppdaget i Jordan, stengte myndighetene alle skolene i landet. Kort tid etter ble også flyktningleiren Zaatari satt i lockdown.

Mer enn 76.000 syriske flyktninger ble, bokstavelig talt, låst inne uten mulighet til å forlate leiren. Samtidig ble det umulig for mange lærere og hjelpearbeidere å komme inn i leiren for å jobbe.

– Mange familier er veldig bekymret for barna sine. Vi gjør det vi kan for å holde kontakt med barna og foreldrene deres, men det er vanskelig når de ikke har stabilt internett eller mobiltelefoner, sier utdanningsrådgiver i Flyktninghjelpen Noor Elkhairy.

Siden utbruddet av Covid-19 har Flyktninghjelpen jobbet døgnet rundt for å sikre de unge flyktningenes rett til utdannelse.

Les hele historien her.

Her family fled to Lebanon from their home in Syria after being caught up in the war there, in 2013.

They moved into their current tent in 2006.Thanks to wood supplied by NRC, the family have been able to double the size of their home since they first bought it from its previous tenant. NRC also supplied and maintains toilets in their settlement, supplies water for drinking and washing, hygiene kits and waterproofing materials.  

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Photo: Sam Tarling/NRC
Fatima nekter å la telt-tilværelsen ødelegge stemningen i familien. Foto: Sam Tarling/ Flyktninghjelpen.

Libanon: Fatima gjorde det beskjedne teltet til et hjem for familien

Med materialer de har fått av Flyktninghjelpen har Fatima Toumas og familien kunnet doble størrelsen på hjemmet sitt. Flyktninghjelpen har også bidratt med toaletter, rent vann, hygieneutstyr og vanntetningsmaterialer til bosetningen.

– Jeg vil endre på ting, gjøre det litt penere her. Da tenker jeg ikke – denne veggen er så trist og tom – når jeg ser meg rundt. Denne blomsterpotten for eksempel: Den er veldig enkel, men når jeg ser på den blir jeg i litt bedre humør.

Hvis noen kan gjøre et enkelt telt om til et hjem, er det Fatima. Til tross for at hun savner sitt egentlige hjem i Syria, gjør hun alt hun kan for å bringe farge og varme inn i teltet hun deler med familien.

Les hele historien her.

Yousef lives nearby the centre with his mother, father and brother. They have lived in Lebanon for five years after fleeing Syria because of the war. 

Talking about the August 4th explosion at Beirut port:  “We were at home when the explosion happened. My mother was sitting outside, my father was sleeping. We were on the bed, we heard the explosion, we went outside then we lay down. I was terrified.”
“The glass all broke, and the washing machine broke too. Also the bed and the closet broke. One window in the kitchen was not broken.
We slept at home


On The NRC lesson:
The activities were, the sun and the mountain, and drawing, also we learned about the brain. The activity which I liked most is the sun and the mountain because it makes me feel happy. I had fun, yes I had fun, also I was happy 

Interview with Yousef

*Youssef how did you know about NRC?
I saw you every day, and then my mom told me that she registered me in NRC
*For how long you have been in NRC?
Two days 
*How often do you come?
Every Tuesday and Thursday
*What kind of activities  do you do in NRC center, would you please tell me?
Mountain and sun
*What does  Mountain and Sun mean? 
About the brain 

We painted, and they taught us about the brain.
*What did you learn about the brain?
When we are happy or sad 
*What do we do when we are happy?
We enjoy 
It feels sad 
*Which activity you liked most?
Sun and mountain. 
Why did you like it most?
*Because they made me happy. 
Do you enjoy when you do the mountain and the sun’s activity?
Ok
*Youssef, do you practice the mountain and the sun activity at home?
I learned it today. 
*If you learned today, so what are you going to do when you return home?
The sun and the mountain activity.
*Do you have siblings; are they older or younger than you?
A brother, he is younger than me. 
*Did you fight with him, or have you been angry from each other one day?
It never happened. 
*Do you practice at home what do you learn at the center, to help you feel more satisfy? 
Sometimes.
*Like what?
Breathing 
*Exactly, how do we breathe?
*Good, what else do you do among the activities that you have learned in the center?
Just those. 
*Youssef, how did you feel when you participated in the activities of NRC center?
I enjoyed it. 
*Why did you enjoy it?
Because they make me enjoy it. 

Interview with Social emotional support facilitator Chadi Zein:
You saw how the boy participated, he was great, he reached his limit, then he moved to another place. 
We wasted time on behavior issues during the last class.
Today it worked out because I made an intensive lesson about the content of the last lesson and the safe zone, because it was the occasion of prophet’s birthday, I had to do it intensive. 
These activities are one of the most important things that students must learn, not only in difficult times and in the occurrence of disasters and problems. This type of classes should be practice in every school around the world in order to achieve peace in the world. 
Because these activities, which they learn in these classes, allow them to discover what is happening deep inside them, and how they feel when something is happening or if they are thinking about an idea, if that idea is preferred or not, and what can I do for similar thoughts.
They are learning emotional intelligence, the feelings  and the thoughts, that’s means, what I can do when I am scared or sad or angry, should I let it control me and makes me tired and sick, or I manage it in a better way by reducing it and choose what is happening inside me.
He is like a farmer who cultivates his land, he doesn’t leave the weed in his land, but he removes them. The children respond wonderfully in this context.
First of all I ask them, I know when I ask a child how did you feel before and after the activities, from time to time and according to the design of BLB, you have to ask the child: how did you feel, did you do the exercises at home or not, and what did you feel after doing the exercises? He distinguishes where he feels.
For example, this is the scale of feelings, before coming to the center, the children don’t know what they are feeling, and a child lives a state but doesn’t think about it. 
As soon as he arrives in the center he learns how to think, if he is very happy or a little bit happy or a bit sad or very sad, or angry, then he learns that the feelings are normal things, they move like an ocean wave. 
Sometimes, some events cause stress, what I should do to be relieved, so that these events do not disturb me much. What I should do to reduce it. They learn all of this here.
It changes their lives in certain point, I know that this thing has happened in concrete terms from what they say and they tell you.
For example I have three students in one class they are brothers, once the old brother saw his other brothers fighting, he remembered that when they get angry they can do the deep breathing and use other tools, he reminded them of that but they didn’t listen to him, he went to a safe zone and relieved, then he went in the room, he saw his brothers paintings together and stopped fighting, they were communicating between each other.
That’s because all of them used the tools that they learned here, and they used them in their daily life, without need to anybody to remind them of these tools, they remember themselves so they feel more comfortable. 
Because of that, all the children must learn these type of exercises and tools, to be more satisfied and to have a valuable relationship between them and their friends, their teachers and their parents, this relationship should not be built on violence or anger etc.. But built on controlling the feelings and thoughts and to communicate through relations in a comfortable environment, which contains more dialogue.
Also it effects positively on their grades, as well as on everything they do. You asked me how do I know that. At the end of the course we speak with the parents, I ask them, did you see a progress, and they say yes we can feel a concrete progress   
The explosion in Beirut has affected all of us, as adults, in our works and activities, all of us are vulnerable to trauma. It was a trauma for everyone, it was a near-death experience, and we were almost being hurt. If it affected us like this, how did it affect children? The children are fresh dewy buds; definitely they were affected by the explosion. 
Someone thinks that a cloud is an explosion, another when he hears a loud sound, he thinks it is an explosion, and another if he sees smoke he thinks it is an explosion. It exists in their daily life and makes them worried, a part from what they saw, and some children saw very terrifying scenes. 
Sometimes the children speak about it. In the class we respect the privacy of the child, so we don’t ask the child to tell us what has happened to him. 
When we work on the events which cause stress, we mention the war and the explosion, which are among other events which happen.
There are children tell you, for example, if we do the breathing exercise or another exercise and said that it relieves us, sometimes a child come and tell you that he had pieces of glass in his leg,  or he was injured, every child spontaneously tells us, I don’t go through details with him but I continue the lesson, this thing is heard and drawn.
A child drew the explosion, I am not sure if it still here, some of them draws the explosion, everyone expresses using his style.
There are children have nightmares, other children can’t sleep, other children don’t want to go out of the house because they are afraid of an explosion.
By the way, they are the same symptoms that adults have them, everybody has the same symptoms. The explosion thundered… he is just a little child… we want to say that for all humans the explosion caused trauma for everyone.
På Flyktninghjelpens sentre brukes tegning som en teknikk for å la barna bearbeide vonde opplevelser. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/ Flyktninghjelpen

Libanon: Hjelper Beiruts barn å håndtere de vonde følelsene

Den 4. august 2020 rystet en voldsom eksplosjon Libanons hovedstad Beirut. Knust glass og vrakrester dekket gatene og tilbake lå tusenvis av ødelagte hjem. Eksplosjonen var skremmende for alle, spesielt for alle barna i byen.

Yousef Sarhan er ti år gammel. Sammen med familien har han flyktet fra Syria og bor nå i Beirut. De var alle hjemme da eksplosjonen skjedde.

– Mamma satt ute og pappa sov. Broren min og jeg lå på sengen da vi hørte smellet. Vi løp ut og la oss på bakken. Jeg var livredd, sier Yousef.

For barn som Yousef, som bor nær området som ble rammet av eksplosjonen, var det en spesielt nær og skremmende hendelse. Noen barn har hatt mareritt og problemer med å sove. Andre har stressreaksjoner og er redde for at det skal smelle igjen.

Yousef er en av hundrevis av barn som deltar på Flyktninghjelpens psykososiale behandlingstimer. Disse kom i stand som følge av eksplosjonen i august.

Les hele historien her.

Reem, 15, is from Deir EZ-Zur and is currently living in the governorate of Rural Damascus. 
Reem and her family were forced to flee their home in Deir Ez-Zur and, as a result, has been out of school for five years. 
She enrolled in NRC's “Education Pathway – Transition” programme and after just two months, she was back at school once again.

Photo:  Tareq Mnadili/NRC
Reem (15) kommer fra Deir ez-Zur, men bor nå i Rural Damascus. Foto: Tareq Mnadili/ Flyktninghjelpen

SYRIA: Hva det betyr å få gå på skolen

Da barn over hele verden startet et nytt skoleår, fikk endelig Reem (15) og Yasmine (14) også komme tilbake, etter flere år uten skolegang. Da vi møtte dem, reflekterte de over hva det betød for dem å endelig kunne gjenforenes med vennene sine.

– Jeg pleide å bli veldig misunnelig da jeg så vennene mine gå til skolen, når jeg ikke kunne. Det fantes ingen skole jeg kunne gå på. Da var drømmen min å kunne være en av dem. En av dem som var på vei til skolen, sier Reem.

Reem og familien måtte flykte fra hjemmet i Deir ez-Zur på grunn av konflikten. Derfor er det hele fem år siden hun gikk på skolen.

Flyktninghjelpen jobber med barn som Reem, som har mistet skolegang på grunn av krig. Vi jobber for å dem tilbake på skolen, og for å gi dem mulighet til å ta igjen det tapte.

Våre utdanningsprogrammer hjelper barn og unge mellom seks og 14 år, som ikke får gått på skolen, med å skaffe ferdighetene og kunnskapen de trenger for å kunne komme tilbake til normal skolegang.

Les hele historien om Reem og skolen hennes her.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) provides free Information and Counselling Legal Assistance (ICLA) services to Syrian refugees in across the country on a yearly basis, to support them in dealing primarily with civil documentation (birth, marriage, divorce and death registration), legal residency, employment rights, and housing, land and property (HLP) rights.

As part of the response, NRC reached out to Hassan under a consortium project together with International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Humanity Inclusion (HI), through support from the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Department Office.

“A few months/weeks ago, NRC visited us and provided information on legal assistance. “NRC then referred us to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) because my daughters were born in Hermel and it falls under their area of work to register their birth but NRC helped me obtain a marriage certificate,” Hassan explains. 

“I met with a lawyer who processed the paperwork, then I signed them and it was done. It was very comfortable and the process was very easy. Now when the borders will open, I can send my family to Syria without any legal problems,” Hassan says. “I am beyond happy with how NRC helped me,” says Hassan.

Photo: Zaynab Mayladan/NRC
Hassan El Mosmar (35) med én av sine fire døtre. Han er en av tusenvis av syriske fedre med barn som ble født i Libanon, men som ikke har kunnet registrere fødselen offisielt. Foto: Zaynab Mayladan/ Flyktninghjelpen

LIBANON: Endelig kan Hassans døtre krysse grensen

– Jeg bekymrer meg hele tiden. Jeg visste at hvis jeg bestemte meg for å reise tilbake til Syria, kunne jeg ikke ta dem med meg, sier Hassan om sine fire døtre. Han er en av tusenvis av syriske fedre med barn som ble født i Libanon, men som ikke har kunnet registrere fødselen offisielt.

Disse barna vil få problemer med å motta tjenester som utdannelse, helsehjelp, juridisk hjelp eller humanitær bistand, hvis de en gang reiser tilbake til Syria.

Barn uten komplett fødselsattest kan også bli nektet å reise. Hvis familiene bestemmer seg for å returnere til Syria, vil det by på store utfordringer for dem. Identifikasjonspapirer og dokumentasjon må nemlig først utstedes korrekt i Libanon.

Flyktninghjelpen gir gratis informasjon, råd og juridisk bistand til anslagsvis 200.000 syriske flyktninger i Libanon, hvert år. Hovedsakelig bistår vi med å dokumentere ting som fødsler, ekteskap, skilsmisse og dødsfall. I tillegg til oppholdstillatelser, jobbrettigheter og bolig- og eiendomsrett.

Les hele historien her.