The Beirut Enterprise is honoured to present John Balouziyeh's latest book Hope
and a Future: The Story of Syrian Refugees (Time Books, 2016):
"As an attorney based in the Middle East, I have witnessed scenes that would draw tears
from a stone, scenes that have made the gravity of the Syrian refugee
crisis terribly clear to me. In the streets of Beirut, I was astonished by the
number of Syrian mothers cradling their infants, begging for money to buy
medicine, some succumbing to prostitution, trading their bodies for loaves of
bread. In Jordan, an infrastructure already strained with water scarcity and
rising energy prices is now buckling under the weight of more than half a
million Syrian refugees. In Iraqi Kurdistan, countless refugees and
internally-displaced persons have been reduced to eating grass to survive.
Umm Haitham struggles to support six children with an allowance of USD 67.50 that she receives from UNHCR each month.
In my travels, I met orphans separated from all known
relatives, innocent bystanders rendered limbless by bomb shrapnel, children who
bear psychological and physical scars, widows unable to treat terminal
illnesses and families whose breadwinners one day never returned home, never
again to be seen, leaving behind a family unable to pay for food, medicine and
shelter. I have met refugees that have been displaced multiple times—first from
Homs to other areas of Syria, then back to Homs, and finally forced to flee Syria
altogether. I have met Palestinian refugees who for decades lived peacefully in
Syria, only to be forced to flee to urban centers or camps in Lebanon or
Jordan. I have met young children robbed of their childhood, forced to work to
survive, loaded with burdens too heavy to bear. Many of these children have
only known human suffering. Theirs is a land marked by blood and gore, ruled by
heartless, lawless men.
For countless refugees, the Mediterranean Sea has become a
graveyard. One Syrian child whose small, lifeless body washes up on our shores
is too many; 13,000 child victims of war is inadmissible.
As I visited refugee camps in Syria’s neighboring
countries, I witnessed first-hand the challenges refugees face on a daily basis
in their struggle to survive—shortages of food, medicine and other provisions,
the inability to care for the sick, the daunting journey from Syria into
surrounding countries—for many refugees, undertaken by foot, often carrying
small children and the wounded and injured; sometimes undertaken in the bitter
cold of winter.
The Syrian civil war has divided a nation and triggered
the greatest humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century. Syria has been torn
apart by sectarianism, a virulent strain whose wanton and widespread
destruction has known no limits. If we fail to act, an entire generation will
grow up not knowing human compassion. If we continue to demonstrate
indifference to the plight of the Syrian people, a generation of Syrians will
normalize violence and indifference to human suffering.
The Syrian War also gives humanity a chance to act. We can
demonstrate human compassion in a way that history has never known. We can
restore human dignity to the victims of the conflict, seeking justice for the
needy, defending the fatherless, pleading for widows, visiting the distressed
in their trouble. We can undo their heavy burdens, free the oppressed and feed
the hungry. We can open the doors of our homes to the poor and the vulnerable
who have been cast out.
Stars of Hope™ impart messages of hope and healing, such as “courage,”
“dream” and “friendship.” As I gave each child a star, their eyes lit up
as though I had given them a priceless treasure. After I had completed
distributing the Stars, the children did not turn around and ask for
food or money. Their only demand was that I stay and play with them.
It is no longer possible to ignore the Syrian refugee
crisis. The Syrian people are knocking, and before each of us is a choice. Do
we open the door?"
