When
my friend first told me about the SCM medical mission to help the Syrian refugees in Jordan
Visiting camps
for a whole week at a time, working with devastated people, kids, old ladies,
young men who lost every hope in life, makes you rethink every single thing you
knew about the Syrian revolution.
Being Palestinian,
being a professional refugee gives you a different perspective about the refugee
life, the stories I heard from my father about camps, all came back to life,
this time with different characters, yet same agony.
To be honest,
before these missions, I used to sympathies with the Syrian regime, thinking
that it was under huge conspiracy driven by media, but living with Syrians for 3
weeks changed my whole perspective.
The stories I
heard, the horrors those people came across, the agony, the blood, death and
torture made me feel guilty about my opinions
I worked in the
ophthalmic clinic, fitting patients for glasses, I came across horrible
stories, unbelievable tales of war.
I once had an
elderly lady in her late 70s, once she saw me she couldn't hold her tears, she
started crying loudly, apparently I reminded her of the son she lost in the war, among
other four sons, she lost while running from Aleppo, she told me that parents should never outlive their sons, she told me that all she needed is to see
clearly, so that she can read Quran for their souls in the afterlife, she had
cataract, a condition we can't treat with our limited resources, I never felt
this helpless in my entire life.
In Al-Zaatri camp
I had this patient, a young man limping; he came hoping to get his vision back,
he told me his history, he was fleeing the country with his wife and two
daughters, when a bomb went off beneath their feet, his wife and daughters
died, he lost his foot, and sharpens hit his two eyes, he had severe corneal
damage, needed a bilateral corneal transplant, something we couldn't help with,
he left the clinic in tears, I never felt this helpless in my life.
We visited
Al-Malki Syrian kids center, a place that treats PTSD in children, we played
with the kids, sang and danced, I couldn't help but notice this little kid
sitting in the corner by himself, I went to him, tried to talk him into joining
the other children, not a single response, not a single word and no eye
contact.
I was never good
with kids so I called my fellow volunteers Hisham and Rami, who also tried to
get him to play with us, again no response, after a while the attending
psychiatrist, Dr Shafiq came along and took his hand to join the other
children, he told us that he trust no one except for him, after he saw his own
father murdered in front of his eyes
No human being
should ever be subjected to such horrors, these sort of things makes me rethink
the humanity of the world we live in, how it is even possible that the headlines
nowadays are about some celebrity doing some stupid stuff, or a team winning a
stupid game, while those tormented souls suffer in silence.
We tried to help
as much as we can, but still we all felt helpless against this terror, we
treated about 3000 patients in those 3 weeks, still, there's more than 2 million
Syrians suffer with no help what so ever !
We will continue
our trial to help, we will keep shouting for the human race to care, screaming for the world to
gain his humanity back, hopefully some day someone will listen and end this
madness.
