For many Americans, Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year” — but that’s not the reality for millions of refugees living in overcrowded displacement camps across the Middle East.
Vernon Brewer, founder and CEO of the Christian humanitarian organization World Help, recently traveled to refugee camps near the Jordan-Syria border to deliver aid to those displaced by war and violence. While distributing essentials, including towels, diapers, hygiene kits, nonperishable food items, winter coats and space heaters to refugees, Brewer witnessed suffering that will forever be etched in his memory.
“These people are still living in tents with their families in sub-freezing temperatures and rain and wind. They don’t know how they’re going to face the freezing weather ahead,” he told The Christian Post. “Families work long hours in fields just for a few dollars to buy a meager meal. There’s a shortage of food and medical supplies because they’ve been forgotten. Their homes, schools, and communities have been destroyed but it seems that the rest of the world no longer cares.”
According to statistics from the U.N. Refugee Agency, over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since 2011, seeking safety in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and beyond. Millions more are displaced inside Syria and around 70 percent live below the poverty line.
Through their latest initiative, “Christmas for a Refugee,” World Help is calling on people to help provide relief to refugees during these harsh and difficult winter months. Every $35 gift, when combined with grants and generous corporate donations, enables World Help to deliver $189 worth of aid — providing food, survival essentials and medicine to thousands of refugee families.
