World has deserted Syria

HUNDREDS of airstrikes, surface-to-surface missile attacks and artillery bombs from Syrian and Russian war machines rained upon Ghouta.

At least 400 people died and 1 800 were injured, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

All countries bordering on Syria locked their borders. There is a sense that the world has deserted the Syrians.

The UN estimates that 500 000 Syrians have been killed. One quarter of the population are refugees, and 6.1 million are internally displaced.

Cities have been destroyed and chemical weapons have been used more than 180 times, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

The UN Security Council failed even to pass a resolution for a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire in Ghouta. The Russian envoy said “it was not realistic”. ACAPS, an independent group that collects data about humanitarian crises, estimates that about 400 000 people live under siege, and 70% of them are women, children and the elderly.

Questions on whether or not humankind has failed itself are irrelevant and those who are impassioned to do something are helpless.

Still, those who raise their voices against such injustices don’t fall within the frequency of the hearing of those who can change things. Yet, there is hope. Hope that in whatever we can do – we can do something – no matter how little or how far we are from such crises because we have within us the gift of benevolence, kindness and the genuine concern for our fellow humans and, of course, there is the power of prayer.