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\u201cI can never forget the joy I felt in my heart when I helped people\u00a0who were suffering. I am so proud to say that my friends and I have been able to share our talents with others\u201d.\u00a0 These words were spoken by David Rossi, the organiser of a group of four volunteers who spent ten days helping Syrian families in refugee camps in Lebanon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n David Rossi explained that this adventure\u00a0started in a\u00a0house in\u00a0\u0126amrun\u00a0where basic\u00a0writing, reading and mathematics sessions are\u00a0held\u00a0by a team of volunteers\u00a0for Syrian children of various ages who found refuge in our country. One day, David spoke to the other volunteers about\u00a0the possibility of taking a group of Maltese people to Syria.\u00a0\u00a0Over time, the situation in Syria worsened but the idea was not dropped and instead plans started to be made for the group to go to Lebanon, which shares a frontier with Syria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Among the volunteers who help teach the Syrian children was a Lebanese woman,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a lecturer at the University of Beirut, who immediately started to communicate with her contacts in Lebanon. According to David, she is the one who made the Maltese group\u2019s visit to refugee camps possible. Contact was made with a Lebanese organisation that works with children. This organisation made it possible for the Maltese group to visit a country in the Middle East and enter into Syrian refugee camps. The adventure commenced on the 10 September and ended on the 21 September.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Maltese group comprised five\u00a0people:\u00a0David Rossi,\u00a0the organiser; Zarifa Dag;\u00a0the Lebanese lecturer; Valerie Camilleri,\u00a0nurse; Josephine Saliba,\u00a0educator;\u00a0and\u00a0Lisa Caruana\u00a0who also helped teach the children.\u00a0David Rossi stayed in the apartment of a Syrian refugee who was also the group\u2019s driver and the three Maltese women stayed in another apartment which was about 10 minutes away. Apart from helping with the teaching, David Rossi was also responsible for the cooking and he\u00a0introduced a number of Maltese recipes to some of the Syrians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n David Rossi described\u00a0life in the camps of Bar Elias, about an hour and a half from Beirut and five minutes away from the frontier with Syria. \u201cThere the refugees live in tents that look like they are made of cardboard with roofs made of wood and they cook directly on the burner.\u201d He said that the conditions under which the refugees live are pitiful and the size of each camp varies.\u00a0\u201cOne of the camps, for instance, houses about 200 families.\u201d He said that some of the camps hold classes for children so that they can be integrated into the education system in Lebanon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Asked whether the Maltese group\u00a0had been\u00a0in\u00a0any danger, David Rossi said that the zone they had been\u00a0in was considered to be quite dangerous. \u201cWe realised just how dangerous it was the day the Russian\u00a0plane\u00a0Il-20<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>fell on Syrian territory on the 18 September\u201d, said David Rossi, adding that \u201cthe streets were almost empty of people and we thought that there had been\u00a0a\u00a0security alert\u201d.\u00a0When they returned to their apartments, after\u00a0another day with the refugees, the group stayed inside and communicated only through email and\u00a0What\u2019s App<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With regard to<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the atmosphere at the camp<\/span><\/span>, the Maltese group experienced some tension and anxiety particularly among the Syrian Sunni and Shia. He explained that the refugees from Syria were Sunni and they are very afraid of Shia. \u201cWe were very careful about what we said and how we acted\u201d, said Rossi. He said that the group was very disciplined and everyone did their part with the utmost professionality. \u201cWe coordinated throughout and everyone knew what they were doing\u201d, said David Rossi.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Leb-3.jpg\")
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