It’s been on the news, flooding our Facebook feeds – just a few weeks ago bombs destroyed the last hospital in Aleppo. Over the last 5 years since a civil war broke out in Syria, conditions have been consistently getting worse. Now, people in Syria are being held hostage - stuck between Russian airstrikes, government troops, and rebel groups and civilians tweeting messages of despair for help and final messages. Syria's citizens are forced out of their homes and cities – the problem is is that there’s no place to go, and it’s insanely hard to leave the city. Airstrikes happen constantly, bodies littering the streets.
Why should we care? These are humans, humans that deserve the basic right to live. The people tweeting heartbreaking messages could be us. They could be our relatives; they could have been us before our ancestors immigrated here. Over 11 million Syrians are fleeing their country and 6 million are displaced. During the elections some people were afraid that immigrants would steal jobs in America, the reality is the people in Syria are not coming to America to steal your jobs, they’re coming here to have a last shot at living.
When we say “never again,” after the Holocaust, after the civil rights movement, after the shootings in Paris, after the shooting of the night club in Florida, do we really mean it? Or is it just a phrase that makes us feel better as we move on in our safe bubble? I care about the people in Syria because it’s human nature to do so. Seeing story after story, tweet after tweet, makes me sick – but people are physically feeling the affects. If you're wondering how you can help out, these are a few organizations that are currently helping people in Syria.
Most of the efforts involve giving donations to on the ground organizations such as:
The White Helmets - This group is seeks to rescue people out of communities that have been bombed - often pulling them out of the rubble and raising money for artificial limbs
Doctors without Borders - Provides medical care on the ground to people needing it. With the last hospital in Aleppo being destroyed, medical care is needed immensely.
If money is out of the option, write letters to your senator or representative, talk to your friends to keep the topic and conversation going, have a bake sale to raise money. You can get connected with a refugee placement group in your community, you could donate time, or basic living necessities to families that have just moved here. Doing something is better than doing nothing at all.
