A Child Called Hope

Refugees don't leave their homes like one going on vacation. They flee because their lives are being threatened. So it has been with the people fleeing Syria. In many cases the men were killed, women raped, and the trauma to survivors was so deep that they simply ran on foot, not knowing where to go.

Culturally, before all this, it was very normal for a girl to be considered an old maid if she reached fifteen unmarried. The families made sure this didn't happen, to preserve the honor of their family name. So girls didn't consider education; they were in a tight-knit family unit where they were learning birthing, cooking, baking, and housekeeping. Literacy was not conceived of because women don't go out; the men do the public work. Only a shameless woman would be out in society. 

So they arrived in large groups, fleeing, carrying little ones, with very little else. As they crossed borders they encountered some who were helpful, many who were angry that they were coming in to bring their messy lives into the order of the existing society, and many men who had been taught by the local religion that it was good and acceptable to offer a bride price for young girls to increase their own harem. Since the founder of this religion had a wife as young as six, children are fair game. 

Because of this, many women who had little girls found that they could not even try and rent homes in towns, because the landlords would feel justified in approaching any of their daughters. So they kept to open fields and lived in tents, finding work for farmers, getting water from irrigation ditches, and moving on if things didn't work out.

So it is that Fatima and her family arrived at a large camp in the Aegean Basin. She was one of the fortunate ones. Her husband, though wounded, had survived, and they both worked in the fields. She was fifteen and had two children already. But there are few resources when you are a refugee that has fled on foot for hundreds of miles.

 The common care for infants is to take a plastic grocery bag and put the child's body in it, and cross the handles over the arms, like overalls. This collects the waste, and prevents frostbite. It also leaves a child sitting in it's feces and urine, causing skin conditions. When the mother's milk runs out from trauma, the child's immune system becomes compromised. 

The Hope House Team regularly visit this camp, bringing food, shoes, clothing, diapers and formula. That day Fatima's baby spiked a fever and they thought she was dying. Indeed, she looked gray and lifeless. Fatima heard the team was there and brought them her baby. When Meral saw the baby, she knew this was an emergency. Asking for permission, she took the child to the hospital. Stunned at her condition, they got her on IV and bathed her infected sores. It did not look hopeful, but the Hope House church began to pray. Miraculously, the child had a complete turn around. Within 48 hours, she was discharged. Meral was able to take the baby back to the camp.

Fatima assumed her child had died. She had seen so much death, she could imagine nothing else. When Meral came up with the bundle in her arms, they thought it was for burial. When the baby was alive and well, they were shocked. The whole camp came running at the shrieks of Joy. Fatima hadn't even named the child in the trauma they had lived through. Meral had called her Hope in her heart, because she believed she could be saved. Fatima decided to name the child Meral, for the woman who had taken an interest in her life.

And Hope House was born from the incident with this baby. Now mothers with infants come weekly to receive formula and diapers, and are given medical care and lessons to equip them to overcome their trauma and know how to care for their infants and toddlers. The children are thriving, and more programs are being developed. A laundromat is next, so that they can come in, do their wash, and have a literacy class while they wait. Thank you for giving; it saving lives!