Three Refugee Families:  At Age 11, Working to Support His Family

. . . his father was shot six times in the back by religious extremists near their home in Iraq and his wounds still have not fully healed.  One bullet hit his spinal cord.  His doctors advise him to spend no more than 2 hours a day seated in his wheelchair.  The rest of the time he has to stay in bed in their small apartment, unable to work.

 

So young Abdul stands on the busy street corners of Damascus, trying to sell watches and mobile phones but without much success.  Even on his best days he earns less than the equivalent of $4. 

The days are long and hard.  Not many people want to buy phones and watches from young boys standing on the street, and besides, with 1 ½ million Iraqi refugees in Syria, there are a lot of other Iraqi refugee children trying to survive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It is just slightly better,” he said about security back home, “but Iraq is not a good country to go back to.  Now people feel dangerous when they go there.”  So the family stays in Damascus, safe, but living in poverty.

 

Along with all of the Iraqi refugees, Falah Hassan is grateful for the hospitality of the Syrian people.  But the Syrian government can afford only very modest assistance.  The Hassan family survives with a bit of money provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and some food from the World Food Programme.  Our delegation left them a cash gift for which they were grateful.

 

Abdul, like all refugee boys, has hopes for the future.               

The family applied for resettlement to the United States but

were rejected.  Maybe some day they can find

resettlement in Canada.  Maybe in Canada his dad could

get the proper medical treatment he needs.  And maybe

some day the family will have enough money so that

Abdul and Ghanideer can go to school.

 

But in the meantime, 11-year-old Abdul stands for long hours

on the busy street corners of Damascus, hoping, hoping

someone will please stop and buy a watch or a mobile phone.

 

 

November, ’08 delegation members Dr. Mazhar Rishi,

second from left, Mel Lehman of CommonHumanity.org,

right, and Wendy Keslick of Children Creating Bridges,

front right with the Hassan family.

 

 

 

Working Over 12 Hours a Day in a Barber Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I met Abdul’s father, Falah Hassan, he was lying in bed with medical equipment hooked up to him (left, with wife Rukaya on right).  I asked him what message he would like to send to the American people.  “I’d like to tell the American people that we are suffering a lot,” he told me.  Conditions may have improved a bit in Iraq by November, 2008, when I spoke with him, but he was still afraid to return.

 

Baha Aldeen, age 15, and his brother Dofuqar, age 13, (left, with their mother, Basaud) are two more of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees living in Syria.  A lot of things went wrong for Baha and Dofuquar.  American tanks came to their neighborhood during the U.S. invasion several years ago and smashed their Dad’s shop. 

 

Their Mom and Dad started fighting and eventually separated, their Dad going to the Arab Emirates.

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