‘I am begging people to care’: Calgary Syrian refugee organizes aid for earthquake survivors | 24CA News

Five thousand folks at the moment are reported to have been killed within the two earthquakes that devastated components of southern Turkey and northern Syria earlier this month, however the destruction in Syria has made a determined state of affairs even worse for thousands and thousands of people that have survived the nation’s civil battle.

Now, a Calgary girl is taking motion to assist these in her homeland — a spot to which it’s been difficult to ship support.

Aya Mhana moved to Calgary as a refugee from Syria seven years in the past — her mother and father and sister nonetheless reside there, together with buddies who’re struggling to outlive within the earthquake-devastated space.

“Sometimes I couldn’t manage to hear all the stories because I’ve been having nightmares. I cannot express my feelings because I was in shock, so imagine how those people there are feeling,” Mhana mentioned.

“I felt helpless because of the circumstance my people are going through. It’s a disaster on top of a disaster.”

Mhana took her emotions of despair and turned to her music — she’ll be performing songs she wrote in regards to the heartbreak in Syria at fundraiser in Calgary referred to as Rise from the Rubble.

Raghda Azzam, who moved to Calgary from Lebanon as a pupil, helps arrange the occasion.

“Syria and Lebanon, geographically to me feels like one country,” Azzam mentioned.

“We are separated by a border, but passports drop when we see humanity calling us. It touches so many people here and it touched me a bit closer because I’ve been to Syria. Syria is a beautiful country –the Syrian people are beautiful people. They are also my people, and so it is with someone in Ukraine — they are also my people. So this touches my heart,” Azzam mentioned.

Even earlier than the earthquakes, getting support to components of Syria got here with political and logistical challenges.

For years, international support has been introduced into northwestern Syria by Turkey due to the issue of going by Damascus. Now, southern Turkey has been closely broken by the earthquake and Bashar Assad’s authorities in Damascus continues to be going through sanctions

“It makes it so much more difficult to get the stuff to Syria than in Türkey,” Azzam mentioned.

“Syrians have been holding on to a very thin thread of hope and that thin thread of hope snapped after the earthquake.”

Even although Mhana began her life over once more when she fled the battle in Syria, she’s grateful to be in Canada the place she may also help these in larger want.

“I am begging people to care,” she mentioned. “In Syria, they have to start from scratch. They sweat, they spend their lives building these houses and now they have nothing. There’s nothing left for those people.

“People in Canada are affected by the inflation and they are struggling, but if you think about your daily life, we are very blessed and we have everything to thrive not to survive, but people there are starving for a loaf of bread.”

The Rise from the Rubble occasion might be held on March 18.

“This is a cultural event. There’s going to be music and food and poetry. There’s going to be people from that region.  Their hands are a bit tied so they’re going there just to offer support,” Azzam mentioned.

“This occasion is an opportunity for everybody to return and find out about Syria, find out about our music.

“One hundred per cent of the proceeds go to people on the ground who we know are working night and day to help and support.”

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