Today I celebrate 46 amazing years on this planet surrounded by my loving supportive family and friends with endless opportunities available to me and a health care system that has tried its best to keep me going.
During my quest to walk again I had the fortune of being introduced to the amazing Alan Watson who has been treating me since my failed hip Replacement 3 years ago. During our sessions together Alan told me stories about a children’s refugee camp based in Malaak near the Syrian border where 300 people live in small wooden framed buildings surrounded with plastic. The whole camp takes up less than a quarter of a football pitch and 10-12 people live in each building like the one you see below or tents. There is no sewage, running water or electricity.
Twice a year Alan visits the camp with his son to treat over 150 children and provides them with hope. Some of the children are orphans and the age range is between 5 and 16 and any child under 8 years of age, was most likely born in the camp with no medical resources, unless privately funded.
They cannot return to Syria because their homes are no longer there so they are stuck at the refugee camp essentially in no mans land. Over the past four years donations have been made to the camp and they have been able to open “the learning Centre for Kids” providing A safe place where the children could come and learn everything from writing skills to arts and crafts.
However following the blast in Beirut and the worldwide pandemic, locally, unemployment has risen to 65% and those that were once able to help fund the camp are now not able to feed themselves.
Nobody can visit the camp due to the Covid restrictions and the value of money has decreased by 80% while inflation has risen by hundreds of percent. To give an example a 5 kg bag of rice used to cost £2 and is now £20
This is completely un-affordable meaning that people are now starving and without urgent funds this camp will close and innocent children will die.
Therefore my birthday wish is to bring awareness to this tiny children’s camp in Malaak in the hope we can raise some much needed funds to help them.
During the month of September I will be donating a percentage of each sale made to the children’s refugee camp, so please know that should you make your purchase in the month of September some of your money will be going to feed these children and help them stay alive.
Just 50p can provide a hot meal for a child and £2.50 will fuel the generator for the whole camp for a day. The Syrian refugees are not allowed to work, or own any form of business and they have no access to public amenities making it impossible for them to help themselves.
If you wish to make a voluntary donation, right now 100% of any donation made is going towards essentials such as food, medicine and fuel for these children and their families. None of this will be going towards admin fees or salaries. I have added their just-giving link here
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog to the end. It’s not the usual sort of thing people tend to post on their birthday, but sometimes it takes a day like this when you are being showered with gifts and treating yourself to little luxuries to realise how lucky we are to have what we have and how difficult life must be for these poor children, forced to leave their homes and and not knowing if the next meal will come.
You can find out more about the camp via their Instagram page here
Love always
Keri x
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