Dundee pals help out in Lebanese refugee camps

Aid: Duo raised funds to travel to troubletorn area and delivered food parcels

Two Dundee school pals went on a harrowing trip to help displaced people living in Lebanese refugee camps following a £9,000 fundraising drive.

Sophia Younis and Aishah Anwar were deployed to the Middle Eastern country with the charity Action Relief to deliver food packages ahead of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

The pair, both former Morgan Academy pupils, had embarked on a hugely successful fundraising drive around Dundee ahead of their trip.

After arriving in the country on May 8, they visited a number of Palestinian camps in the south before travelling to the north to visit those populated by Syrian refugees.

As part of a 10-strong volunteer team, they prepared packages with 16 food items each before distributing them, often helping carry the boxes to the homes of elderly residents.

The Palestinian camps have been established for so long that generations of families had been born there.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, there are about 450,000 Palestine refugees in Lebanon, representing some 10% of the country’s population. More than half of this number live in camps.

Tens of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon following the outbreak of war in their home country, and more than half of them are said to be living in extreme poverty.

Poverty is rife at the camps with families struggling for work, food, education and medical care.

Sophia, 25, a Dundee University biomedical science graduate, said the trip had been an “eye-opening experience” for them both.

“This is the first time Action Relief have done a charity deployment,” she said. “I had to fundraise £2,500. I raised £4,600 and Aishah managed to raise about the same.

“I thought I was going to struggle but it all worked,” she said.

“When we went to hand deliver, we were able to see the conditions of the camp. The Palestinian camps were very different from the Syrian ones.

“They have not really got any support from the government. They don’t give them any rights to vote, any money.

“The Syrian camps we went to were really, really bad. People had died of hunger. We met so many widows there, husbands had died in the war.

“They were so grateful and so thankful. They have big, big hearts out there. They invited us in for coffee or made tea for us.”

She said other volunteers had brought footballs and clothes for camp residents.

Aishah, a hairdresser in Dundee city centre, also spent time braiding the hair of young girls living in the camps.

Sophia said: “I wish we could do more, we only had four days to pack and distribute. It just makes you appreciate so much in life. There is still so much we can do for people out there.”

bdingwall@thecourier.co.uk

Sophia and Aishah helped deliver food parcels among needy families in the refugee camps, but they also found time to have some fun with this group of delighted children.

Children in the camps loved having their hair braided by Aishah, top, and both women helped pack food to distribute among families living in makeshift houses.