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Dublin football star Noelle Healy pictured with Trócaire Deputy CEO Finola Finnan and Syrian Journalist Razan Ibraheem, at Trócaire’s Christmas appeal launch at the Irish Famine Memorial Statues, Custom House Quay. Photo: Mark Stedman
The five-time All-Ireland medal winner and medical doctor has just returned from a visit to Lebanon with Trócaire, where she saw at first hand the hardship that families are enduring in settlement camps in the Bekaa Valley.
“It was a privilege to meet with families and to hear their stories. They are living in terrible conditions especially at this time of the year with the start of snow and biting cold. The harsh weather is creating havoc for the families living in tents which often flood and collapse leaving families without shelter.”
Heavy snow covers the ground at a refugee camp for Syrians in Lebanon. Credit: Trócaire/SAWA
Healy visited Trócaire supported programmes where Irish donations are helping over 8,000 Syrian refugees. Trócaire is providing community resilience training, emergency support as well as psychological support services and digital literacy for youth in the camps.
“In the Bekaa Valley I visited two informal settlements in Barelias and Saadnayel where Trόcaire works with its partner organisation, SAWA. They are packed with rows and rows of overcrowded and spartan shelters roughly made from wood and tarpaulin. I met so many young people who have hopes and dreams like any Irish boy or girl. One 13-year-old I met, Rawan, who has limited access to education, told me she loves fashion and clothes and like me wants to be a doctor when she grows up, perhaps a surgeon. These young people deserve to have their dreams fulfilled.”
Syrian born Journalist, Razan Ibraheem, who came to Ireland from Syria as a refugee, said at today’s launch: “It has been more than 11 years since the start of the brutal war in Syria. The people are still suffering. Syrian refugees in Lebanon still live in tents and are deprived of basic necessities. Syrian refugee children are cold, hungry and missing schools. All they want for Christmas is an act of kindness, a scarf, a jumper or hot soup. Our response to the refugee crises or any crisis, define who we are and what we stand for.”
Syrian children in a refugee camp in Lebanon receiving a winter kit from Trócaire when temperatures dropped to –4C in January 2022. Photo: SAWA/Trócaire
Finola Finnan, Trócaire Deputy CEO said: “It is vital that this Christmas we don’t forget the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have been forced to flee their homes during this war. Trócaire is proud to work with partners supporting traumatised refugees in Lebanon and helping them live with dignity including SAWA for Development Aid and Women Now for Development.
“Lebanon remains at the forefront of one of the worst humanitarian crises hosting 1.5 million of the 6.6 million Syrians who have fled the conflict since 2011. The Syrian refugee population in Lebanon remains one of the largest concentrations of refugees per capita in the world. With the generosity of our Irish supporters this Christmas Trócaire will continue to provide basic needs in the camps in the New Year.”
Former Armagh football star, Oisin McConville launches the Trócaire Christmas Appeal with David O'Hare from the charity at St. Mary's Church in Belfast. Photo: Justin Kernoghan
In Northern Ireland, former Armagh football star, Oisin McConville launched the Trócaire Christmas Appeal at St. Mary’s Church in Belfast.
Speaking at the launch, where a set of family clothing was displayed to represent the refugees who have become ‘invisible’ to many, Oisin, a Trόcaire Ambassador, said Syrian refugees, including children, are living in appalling conditions in settlement camps in Lebanon, and are entering the bitterly cold winter period when life will become even more unbearable.
“Trócaire’s work, in association with partners, is life changing for people, providing them with food and shelter, community resilience training, health and psychological support services. The agency is also providing lots of support for young people.”
Oisin has travelled to Gaza to see Trόcaire’s work there. “I saw myself how difficult life is in Gaza and how conflict can have a terrible impact on the lives of women, men and children. Even though Gazans can’t leave because of the blockade there, I could absolutely see why people caught up in conflict feel like they have no other option than to flee. They often leave their homes with only what they can carry. No one leaves their country in these circumstances through choice. It is so important that we try to support refugees in whatever way we can.”
Oisin was joined at the launch by Belfast man David O’Hare who works for Trócaire and has just returned from a visit to Lebanon where he saw at first-hand the hardship that families are enduring in settlement camps in the Bekaa Valley on the Syrian border.
David O’Hare said, “It was a privilege to meet with families and to hear their stories. They are living in terrible conditions especially at this time of the year with the start of snow and biting cold. The harsh weather is creating havoc for the families living in tents which often flood and collapse leaving families without shelter, blankets or food.”
