Among many volunteer groups that are ‘doing their bit’ for the Middle East Pressenza came across this Facebook entry of Roey Convery sharing news from her pal Margaret Tookey’s travels into Syria. The tale tells a lot in a few paragraphs.
Margaret Tookey: I’ve just left the Syrian border after our latest EDA work [Edinburgh Direct Aid]. I’m relieved to be away from this place but as always, sad to leave my lovely Syrian team behind in what is effectively a large open prison due to the security situation.
This situation was worse this time but we still managed to get our huge winter supply truck over the treacherous 5 hour mountain route to our border warehouse. It arrived well after dark and was unloaded over the next 3 hours with almost no electricity.
It’s already getting cold on this high, dusty border plateau and there’s much worse to come. I was supposed to be there for a few more days but the risks increased and in the end I had to leave quite quickly.
Despite this EDA managed to spend our money and get more refugee children into school. Every child we can put into education is a triumph. We’ve also got many, many young refugee men and women from the camps into skills training with more to come as well as increased school access.
So I say well done EDA and well done to all those in our organisation who work so hard to make this happen and of course a HUGE thanks to our donors/supporters without whom this work would not be possible. And a great big thank you to our Syrian team who never stop working. Now I’m going home.
