São Paulo – A group of four Brazilians is helping Syrian refugees to survive in a Lebanese camp. Almost a year ago, they started a campaign called Charity without Borders to collect donations such as food, clothes, blankets and all types of provisions for 320 Syrians that live in an improvised way near the Syrian border. They have escaped the conflict that’s been underway for four years already in their home country.
The Brazilians live in Lebanon. Renata Grilli, who coordinates the work, is a journalist in the country because her husband works there, in a Brazilian Armed Forces mission in Lebanon. The pedagogue Márcia Baptista also lives in the Arab country due to the work of her husband, who is a colleague of Grilli’s, and Zilda Naves and Lisiane Haddad live in Lebanon for more than twenty years already. Naves works as a tourist guide and Haddad own a restaurant that serves Brazilian food in Beirut.
Grilli already did volunteer work in Brazil, as part of the project Cisne Branco (White Swan), a group of Navy officers’ wives that do social actions. Since she arrived in the Arab country, she started to notice a lot of Syrian refugees begging, including children, in the streets of Beirut. “In a wretched situation”, she said about the children. One day, she saw a child practically lifeless in the street, to whom she bought water, and then she made a decision.
First, she sought non-government organizations, but soon realized she would not be able to perform a job within them that would make too much of a difference. “I wanted to do more”, Grilli said to ANBA. That’s how she started a campaign on Facebook to collect donations and decided to look for a camp where she could do the job. “The phone wouldn’t stop”, she tells about the start of the campaign. Soon, the other three Brazilians joined the journalist and a lot of Brazilians, living in Lebanon and Brazil, mobilized.
The school where Grilli’s kids studied, Instituto Santa Rosa, Rio de Janeiro state, was one of the first to help with a campaign that involved students’ donations at the same time they would learn more about the Middle East, in a merge of charity with learning. Other Brazilian schools, such as Aprovado, Our Lady of Mercy School, Imaculada Conceição and Jardim Escola Golfinho Companheiro, participated, each in their own way. Our Lady of Mercy School, for instance, sent textbooks in English.
From within the camp, the volunteers shot videos with the refugees, sent letters and, at the end, motivated the schools’ students to donate. The schools were – some still are – delivery points to other Brazilians interested in helping. With the help of Brazil’s Navy, in February of this year, more than 200 boxes of approximately 15 cubic meters each arrived in Lebanon with provisions for the Syrians.
The Brazilians arrived at Jib Janine refugee camp after searching the region. They were looking for a camp that wasn’t very large so it could be attended by the group and that hadn’t had United Nations support yet. They found this camp where, from the total of refugees, 110 of them are children. The area is part of a private farm, in which several of them work, but for a very low wage, which is not enough to support the whole family.
Since then, the Brazilians visited the camp at least once per month and already witnessed very sad stories and scenes. Grill tells about one boy’s leg that was burned by a lamp and got inflamed. To solve the situation, the journalist herself bought all the needed drugs. She also tells about a newborn that was bitten by a rat on the tent’s floor.
Every time they go to the camp, the Brazilians try to promote some activity besides the donations that keep being collected and brought in. Next week, for instance, food will be donated for a celebration of the Ramadan, the Muslim holy month in which the faithful fast during the day and have supper in the night.
One of the difficulties of the project is the logistics needed to transport the donations to Lebanon. The Navy should take a new load from Brazil in August. And Grilli is searching for new ways to promote donations to make the process more practical. One partnership was established with supermarket Supermercado Brasil, located in Lebanon, on the way to the refugees’ camp, so donors can buy basic food baskets online with a credit card, so the food can arrive faster at the camp. The operation should start in July, when the project completes one year.
In September, a charity bingo should be organized for the launching of this second phase, the one with Supermercado Brasil. The group of Brazilians also recently created a page at Kickante, a crowdfunding plataform in which people can donate money for projects and pay through payment slip or credit card (see contact details below).
After certain reluctance to involve money in the campaign, Grilli decided to use Kickante mainly because the refugees need medicine, which is difficult to transport as donations. The journalist says that, in the camp, there are a lot of pregnant women, newborns, a lice problem, dermatitis, malnourishment, among other health problems. Indeed, one of the needs at the camp is also for medical help, so the four Brazilians are in search of a solution to this problem.
Charity Without Borders Campaign
Collection of donations and funds for Syrian refugees in Lebanon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caridadesemfronteirasbeirute?fref=ts
Email: rgrilli@uol.com.br (for information about delivery points in Brazil)
Money donations: http://www.kickante.com.br/campanhas/caridade-sem-fronteiras-libano
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
