"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed... That can make life a garden." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It’s getting colder by the day.

For refugee families fleeing the violence in Syria, this means being forced to choose between keeping their children warm and putting food on the table.

Iman is already worried. She and her husband Hassan fled to Jordan with their three children because of escalating violence in Syria. Her three-year-old son Omer is suffering from a chest infection while 18-month-old Rawan is also unwell.

She knows she can’t afford to add medicine to the shopping list, and a doctor’s check-up would cost money she doesn’t have. It is yet another impossible decision.
 

“It’s not sunny here and all the houses are leaking and mouldy,” Iman says. “They are very cold.”

Together with powerful winds, temperatures in the Middle East and North Africa often fall below zero and storms risk damaging the makeshift tents and run-down buildings where displaced families often seek shelter.

Iman’s family is among the four million refugees and displaced people across the region who urgently need our help to survive the freezing winter months.

Families like Iman’s have already endured so much. This year, COVID-19 is making humanitarian needs more acute than ever – the arrival of the pandemic and restrictions to contain its spread threatens jobs and pushes households deeper into poverty.

At the same time, conflict and insecurity continue in areas like northwest Syria, forcing more people out of their homes and into the cold.

“https://letterpile.com/personal-essays/Paranoia-and-fear-make-people-act-inhumanely”