David Webber | Stories From The Field

ShelterBox Steps up Efforts for Syrian Refugees

Posted on March 11, 2013 by MikeGreenslade

Bassam Shebab, his wife and family with their ShelterBox tent, Lebanon, March 2013. ©MikeGreenslade/ShelterBox

Bassam Shebab and his family fled the embattled Syrian city of Homs a month ago. Bassam was smuggled over the border in the north of Lebanon whilst his family crossed at the Bekaa Valley. He, along with his wife and five young children, have been sharing a makeshift shelter with his brother, sister-in-law and their two children, waiting for the fighting to stop to enable them to return home.

This family is not the only one waiting for the conflict to end in their home country. One million is the number of people who no longer sleep under their own roofs, wondering when they can return home, that is, if their home is still standing when that time comes.

One million is the number of Syrians that have fled to countries like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to escape from almost two years of violence and civil war at home, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Figures show that half of the refugees are children, most of them aged 11 or under.

ShelterBox Response Teams (SRTs) are at work now in Syria’s neighbouring countries Lebanon and Jordan, and ShelterBox is considering a return to Iraq Kurdistan, and will look at further opportunities to deliver aid into Syria itself.

In Lebanon, the smallest of Syria’s surrounding countries, the influx of refugees has swollen the population by ten per cent. SRTs are now delivering winterised ShelterBoxes in discrete micro distributions with various implementing partners to Syrian refugee families, like Bassam Shebab’s.

‘Never feel like home’

‘We will be so much more comfortable in the tent,’ said Bassam, relieved to be out of such cramped conditions. ‘It will never feel like home but we thank ShelterBox for helping us.’

Conditions Not Improving For Syrians in Lebanon

Posted on February 21, 2013 by MikeGreenslade

Syrian refugee families living in makeshift shelters in the Bekaa Valley as winter conditions continue, Lebanon, January 2013. Photo by Raphael Thelen.

‘The refugees are now coming in even greater numbers,’ said ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) member David Webber (UK). ‘These people have nothing and have been subjected to loss of family, rape, kidnap, robbery, the list goes on.’

An SRT has been conducting needs assessments in the most northern part of Lebanon on the Syrian border to get an overview of the latest ever-changing situation for refugees.

Since the conflict began in Syria, this isolated area has been hosting higher relative concentrations of refugees than almost anywhere else in Lebanon. They have received very little humanitarian assistance from the outside and the winter has only compounded the hardships they face daily with high snowfall and subzero temperatures.

‘The number of Syrians is increasing and the conditions are not getting any better,’ commented SRT member Torstein Nielsen (NO).

UK Daily Telegraph reports on ShelterBox and it’s work in Domiz

Posted on December 11, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Syrian refugee make their ShelterBox their home in the Domiz camp, Iraq Kurdistan

There’s a really good, in depth, article on ShelterBox and the work we are doing in the Domiz Refugee Camp in Iraq Kurdistan in the UK Daily Telegraph. ShelterBox has been selected as one of The Daily Telegraph’s Christmas charities and will benefit from their annual appeal. Please click on the link below and share it with your friends.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/telegraphchristmasappeal/9726875/Shelterbox-bringing-emergency-relief-to-refugees-in-crisis.html

ShelterBox is working with The Barzani Foundation at the Domiz camp, Iraq Kurdistan

Tales of Survival and Cooperation in Domiz, Iraq

Posted on November 29, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Abrahim and Zakha Khalo with their granddaughter Zozan outside their ShelterBox tent at Domiz refugee camp, Iraq Kurdistan, November 2012.

With 500 ShelterBox tents now up in the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq Kurdistan, Syrian refugees, fleeing war and persecution, share tales of escape and survival.

Read Zakha Khalo’s story here: SURVIVAL

From left to right: Abdullah’s Auntie Nayima (30) and her three-year-old son Azadin, SRT member Rebecca Novell (UK), Abdullah (28) , Mohammad (15), all at Abdullah’s temporary home he built at Domiz refugee camp, November 2012

One night in October 2010, 40 soldiers came to take Abdullah from his home in Qamishli, Syria. His time as an English Language student at University of Aleppo was to stop. Instead he was forced to join the Syrian Army to fight for President Bashar al-Assad. Two years later, he escaped amidst the escalating violence between government troops and rebel fighters and is now living as a deserter at Domiz refugee camp in Iraq Kurdistan. He is also proving to be invaluable to ShelterBox as its guide and translator.

Read Abdulla’s story here: TRANSLATOR

ShelterBoxes Arrive at Domiz Camp, Northern Iraq

Posted on October 31, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Photograph by Rebecca Novell.

In her second video diary instalment from northern Iraq, ShelterBox Response Team member Rebecca Novell (UK) reflects on the past week, working to deliver aid to families affected by the Syrian refugee crisis.

The team will begin distributing the first shipment of 200 ShelterBoxes in partnership with Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) and a team of volunteers. It is thanks to the collaborative efforts of ShelterBox and BCF with freight transport assistance from Etihad airlines via Airlink, the humanitarian relief initiative of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading Foundation, that the Response Team has been able to provide shelter, warmth and dignity to families in northern Iraq.

Harsh winter weather is fast approaching the region but with the continued support of public donations ShelterBox will continue to provide lifesaving winterized shelter to Syrian families in northern Iraq.

Winter Conditions Threaten Lives of Syrian Refugees in Iraq

Posted on October 26, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Syrian refugees in their current shelter camps in Iraq. Photograph by Rebecca Novell

The ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) working to deliver aid to families in northern Iraq yesterday visited the Domiz refugee camp near Duhok.

The camp which is located 60 kilometres from the Syria/Iraq border has seen a huge influx of families arriving each day since conflict erupted in Syria. The Kurdistan region of Iraq continues to welcome Syrian Kurdish refugees but concerns are now growing over the imminent threat of winter weather to these refugee camps.

In a statement on Tuesday 23 October Kurdish Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa stated that: ‘This is an international crisis and it is affecting the entire Middle East and the broader region. There are already many shortages but these will become much more critical as winter sets in.’

The SRT met with the camp manager from Directorate of Displacement and Migration (DDM) to discuss possible uses for ShelterBox disaster relief tents and to gauge the latest figures on how many families are now residing in the camp. According to records there are now around 15,000 people living in the camp and around 200 new people continue to arrive every day.

Reporting back from the camp in this first video diary installment, SRT member Becs Novell (UK) acknowledges how well established the Domiz camp is and talks of the need for winterised shelter.

Watch the video diary here: NOVELL

Winter ShelterBoxes Sent for Syrians in Iraq

Posted on October 19, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Photograph taken by Reuters/Ali Jarekji, courtesy of the Thomson Reuters Foundation – AlertNet. Syrian refugees arrive at the Al Zaatri refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria August 29, 2012.

Winterised ShelterBoxes have been sent to shelter Syrian families living in Domiz refugee camp in northern Iraq.

As a result of Syria’s growing violence, sectarian tensions and economic hardship, a high influx of people have crossed the border into the Kurdistan region.

Reasons for their arrival are varied – some families are fleeing from conflict in Syria’s northern city Aleppo; some are returning to their Kurdish roots; others may have been displaced by the previous conflict in Iraq.

Many displaced families have made their way to Domiz refugee camp near Duhuk, some 60 kilometres from the Syria/Iraq border.

There are currently around 3,000 families living at the camp, with an average of 50 new families arriving each day.

‘Winter fast approaching’

David Webber (UK) is leading the ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) deployed to the area to deliver aid to families in need:

‘With winter fast approaching, the ShelterBoxes have been especially packed for the refugee families in Domiz to provide them with warmth and comfort in the upcoming extreme conditions in the region.

‘Each box contains a disaster relief tent, extra thermal blankets and groundsheets, water filtration kits, hats, gloves and scarfs for adults and children, some solar lamps and most critically the thermal liner for the disaster relief tents.’

The thermal liner is the result of ongoing development of the equipment that ShelterBox delivers to families in need. It has been designed for use in extreme weather conditions and can be added between the inner and outer sheets of the tent for extra insulation. The thermal layers were used for the first time during ShelterBox’s response to the earthquake that struck Turkey in October 2011 and provided extra warmth for displaced families.

ShelterBox Assesses Need in Southwest Uganda

Posted on July 13, 2012 by MikeGreenslade

Fighting between government troops and M23 rebel forces in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has forced thousands of families to flee their homes into Uganda.

Many crossed the border through Kisoro and travelled 20 kilometres to Nyakabande transit centre, bringing the number of refugees there to over 16,000. From there, many are being relocated 370 kilometres away to Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in Kamwenge district, which currently has 13,600 refugees.

‘The recent fighting, which was heavy and unexpected, resulted in thousands of people, including many women and children, entering Uganda within a very short time,’ said Riccardo Conti, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Uganda. ‘They arrive destitute, because they have to leave everything behind when they flee the country.’

A ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) that has been in the African country responding to the Bududa landslide with the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) is currently en route to the Kisoro district. They will assess the need for shelter and other lifesaving equipment for the fleeing Congolese refugee families.

‘Call upon the International Community’

Stephen O. Mallinga is the Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees in Uganda:

‘The increasing refugee influx into the country is impacting greatly on the meagre resources of the Government and host community. In this regard, I would like to call upon the International Community to urgently mobilise the requisite resources to enhance the government capacity of hosting refugees.’

SRT members Dave Webber (UK) and Fiona McElroy (UK) will be joining the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), URCS, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Medical Teams International, who have been providing humanitarian assistance to the refugee families at Nyakabande.

SRT Dave Webber (UK) in Uganda following mudslides last month

Instability and outbursts of fighting have been ongoing in the DRC. The rebels took up arms last April and named themselves ‘M23’ after a failed peace agreement signed on 23 March three years ago.