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, raising more than £9,000 for refugees in Lebanon 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 have 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.
Families in the camps struggle for work, food, education and medical care.
Miss Younis, 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 do fundraise £2,500. I raised £4,600 and Aishah also managed to raise just about the same. I thought I was going to struggle but it all worked.
“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 support, any money.
“The Syrian camps we went to were really, really bad. People had died in the camps, died of hunger. We met so many widows there, husbands had died in the war.
“They were so grateful and so thankful, they were saying ‘we are so happy that you remembered us’.
“They have big, big hearts out there. They invited us in for coffee, made tea for us. We would always say no, we felt bad, but it was rude to say no as well.
“It was really difficult to see widows struggling and not having anyone to provide for them.”
She said other volunteers had brought footballs and clothes for camp residents.
Miss Anwar, a hairdresser in Dundee city centre, also spent time braiding the hair of young girls living in the camps.
Miss Younis 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.”
