Support Refugees from Syria
Below is a request from our friends at the Palestinian Youth Movement and Middle East Children's Alliance to contribute to a fundraising campaign in support of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. We urge you to support this effort as generously as you are able.
While Israel, the United States, and its other regional allies such as Saudia Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf States, are happy to see the destruction of the “Arab Spring” wherever it may have blossomed, we remain in solidarity with all struggles for human emancipation. The range of forces and interests arrayed against these struggles has been on display in abundance throughout the “Arab Spring,” and nowhere more than in Syria.
As a network, we hold varying positions on the Syrian conflict, and have different analyses of which forces are most to blame for the immense devastation. However, as people dedicated to human liberation, we all recognize the immensity of the human catastrophe which has been the result of the Syrian conflict.
Join PYM and MECA to Support Refugees from Syria Today |
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Urgent Action Needed:
Support displaced children and families from Syria in the refugee camps of Lebanon
Dear Friends and Community Members,
The situation in Syria has become one of the worst
humanitarian crises in recent history. The United Nations is now calling
for $4.2 billion in relief for the people of Syria and those who have
been displaced over the three years of violence that continues to
devastate the country. The facts below highlight the urgency of the
situation and our collective need to act and support our brothers and
sisters in the region.
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More than 7 million people in Syria have left their homes
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Over 136,000 people have been killed
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More than 2.4 million people have fled the country, seeking refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and North Africa
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More than 900,000 Syrian refugees are displaced in Lebanon
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More than 50,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria have sought refuge in Lebanon
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Children comprise over half the refugee population in Lebanon
The
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) - Bay Area chapter and MECA
are calling for urgent action from everyone to help end this most recent
nakba, catastrophe.
Coming
from a community who has struggled for more than sixty-five years
against continuous displacement, PYM - Bay Area stands in solidarity
with our brothers and sisters in Syria, and we call upon our local
community to join us in supporting our communities in the homeland in
combatting the detrimental effects of forced displacement. In
partnership with the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), PYM - Bay
Area is launching an online donation drive to help raise funds for
education projects and community support for children from Syria in
Lebanon’s refugee camps. The drive will culminate in a cultural event
on March 22nd to
gather as a community and raise as much money as possible for refugees
from Syria. We hope to coordinate our efforts with as many individuals,
organizations, and others who would like to help. The time to act is
now. You can safely send any tax-deductible contribution, no matter how
big or small, online, through the MECA website today.
Since
the beginning of the conflict in 2011, millions of Syrians have fled
their homes, with more than 900,000 of them seeking refuge in Lebanon.
Among them, 80,000 Palestinian and Syrian refugees have sought refuge in
the already overcrowded and impoverished Palestinian refugee camps of
Lebanon, where they rely largely upon the generosity of other refugee
families for support.
To
make matters worse for displaced families, this winter has been one of
the harshest in recorded history in the region, leaving many without
shelter, heat, or food. The brutal cold that has swept through many
countries of the Arab world cannot be disconnected from the changing
global weather patterns, most recent of which devastated millions in the
Philippines with Typhoon Haiyan. Needless to say, it is the most
marginalized populations that carry the burden of these crises. We
recognize that our struggle is bound with the struggle of others across
the many borders that separate us, and we cannot imagine justice for us
until we have realized justice for all. With this in mind, we will
contribute 5% of our fundraising efforts to our brothers and sisters in
the Philippines who also need our help.
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Al Nakab Center for Youth Activities
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The
funds raised will go to support the work of Al Nakab Center for Youth
Activities in Burj el Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. Al Nakab
Center was founded in July 2013 as a joint project between Ma’an Youth
Group and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) - Lebanon to address the
growing needs of Syrian and Palestinian families seeking refuge in the
camp as a result of the protracted violence in Syria.
The
center is entirely run by independent grassroots Palestinian and
Lebanese youth organizers in Beirut and offers educational and cultural
activities to Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth living in the camp,
including English, Arabic and Math classes for Syrian students through
its accelerated learning program. Many children who have fled Syria have
had to seek alternative schooling to the Lebanese public school system,
which is stretched over capacity and where integration into the
Lebanese curriculum has been difficult due to language differences. Al
Nakab Center has thus created a special accelerated learning curriculum
for Syrian refugees in order to fill in this gap, and meet children’s
educational needs in ways the formal schooling system cannot.
Designed
according to the needs highlighted by the refugee families themselves,
Al Nakab Center also functions as a resource institution for displaced
Syrian and Palestinian families who need access to a physical gathering
space and resources such as its computer lab, which provides internet
access for families in the camp. As such, the center has been vital to
those who now suffer from post-traumatic stress and isolation as a
result of the refugee crisis from Syria.
The
center needs $10,680 in order to continue its programming for the next 6
months. To find out more about Al Nakab Center, visit their Facebook page, or contact PYM atpalyouth.usa@gmail.com for more information.
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