Seeds of goodness in the minds of Turkish and Syrian children may grow with them to help reduce inter-ethnic hostility in the future.
The Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011, but the end of the conflict is still nowhere in sight. Whole families have left everything behind and risked their lives to escape to other countries. When we see the refugees and their plight on the TV news, we may feel pangs of sympathy for their suffering and wish we could do something for them. We may even shed a few tears for them and pray for them. But chances are good that a few minutes later, you and I will go back to our own lives and carry on as usual.
That was all I knew about the Syrian refugee crisis before October 16, 2015. On that day, a Tzu Chi delegation left Taiwan for Istanbul, Turkey, to care for Syrian refugees there. I was a member of the delegation. In the week that followed, I had the opportunity to embrace Syrian refugees, console them, cry with them, dry their tears for them, sing with them, and sometimes laugh with them.
We arrived in Istanbul around five in the morning of October 17, and we went straight to the El Menahil school to prepare for an aid distribution. Everything went smoothly because Faisal Hu, his wife, Zhou Ru-yi, and Yu Zhi-cheng, the only certified Tzu Chi volunteers residing in Istanbul, had mindfully planned everything out.
They had also overcome national, ethnic, and religious barriers to help establish a school for refugee children.
Cahit Altunay, mayor of the district of Sultangazi in Istanbul, and Ibrahim Demir, district education chief, have been strong supporters of Tzu Chi’s efforts to make school learning available to Syrian children. They provide classrooms in local schools, Syrian teachers design the curriculum and provide classroom instruction, and Tzu Chi provides financial aid to children so they can stop working and start going to school.
The distributions
Three types of goods or services were handed out in the distributions in Turkey.
First, school supplies—including crayons, pencils, ballpoint pens, pencil boxes, etc.—were given out to the Syrian students at El Menahil. Soccer balls, Frisbees, and Lego sets were distributed to each class.
Second, daily necessities including rice, sugar, and cooking oil were distributed to 1,500 Syrian refugee families, along with a 50-lira (US$17) debit card. Another thousand families each received a 100-lira debit card.
Third, 152 Syrian children were given financial aid to replace the wages they had lost for giving up their jobs in order to attend school at El Menahil. This was indeed unprecedented, and it was such a sweet deal that many Syrian parents could not believe it until they witnessed the scholarship distribution.
Financial aid recipients were mostly between the ages of eight and fourteen. Some of them went with their parents on stage to share their thoughts on these grants—which were not given just this one time, but would continue to be given periodically—that would help them attend school into the future.
“I used to work 12 hours a day, from eight to eight. I was allowed 13 minutes for bathroom breaks a day. If I took too long, the boss would chew me out or even hit me,” said one recipient. “Now Tzu Chi is giving me my lost wages, so I don’t need to work. Thank you, Tzu Chi. Thank you, Taiwan.”
“We didn’t have money, so I had to work to help Dad and Mom,” said another student. “I couldn’t go to school as a result, and that made me very sad. Now that I can go to school, I’ll cherish this opportunity to learn. I’ll work hard to be first in my class.”
“My daughter used to have wonderful grades at school,” said a parent. “After we came to Turkey, she really wanted to go to school but couldn’t because we needed her to work to help support our family. Now Tzu Chi is giving her 800 lira [$272] a month, so she can return to school. We thank Tzu Chi very much, and we thank Allah.”
“For the past two and a half years, my first son has had to leave home early in the morning for work and return very late. It hurts me just to think of that,” another parent told the assembly. “Thank you for providing this opportunity for him to learn at school. I hope that he grows up to be an upright and contributing member of society, and I hope that one day he can be like you and help others in need.”
“I haven’t been able to find work because I’m pregnant, so I had to ask my son to work,” said a mother. “Now that you’ve given him this chance to attend school, I can rest easier at home. I pray that Allah will bless you.”
Tzu Chi volunteers visited the homes of some recipients when the distribution was over. Though each family had a different story, they all have had hard lives.
Gassan Abdullah, 14, one of the aid recipients, made coffee for us when we were at his home. He put on a smile when his mother told us about his father’s illness, but his non-stop finger twiddling betrayed his deep-down fear and restlessness. Feeling for him, we asked him to sit by us.
Before we left we made a deal with him. We asked him to do his best at school and eat more so he can become strong enough to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer. He wants to own a factory and provide for his family.
School visits
In addition to carrying out distributions, we visited different Turkish schools each day for lunch. Ibrahim Demir, the chief of education, arranged these visits for us. After each meal, we had a gathering with the students. Mr. Demir would introduce us as a volunteer group from Taiwan. Then, after a brief history of Tzu Chi was shared with the audience, a documentary produced by Da Ai TV, a Tzu Chi TV station, was shown to help these Turkish students learn more about the pain, suffering, and helplessness of Syrian refugees.
Mr. Demir would then ask the students what they could do to help Syrian children. That would always prompt a lot of hands to go up. Some students said that they could donate clothes that they had outgrown; some said they could teach Syrian children to read and write; others said they could give them books, toys, and more. There was even one who said, “I could love them.” With that, everybody held out their hands in the shape of a heart.
These dialogues and experiences are like seeds of goodness and love planted in the minds of the Turkish students. There might be differences, tensions, and even frictions between Turkish and Syrian students as they grow up. But the seeds planted in these young minds might help diminish or eliminate those tensions.
Only through love and goodness can confrontation and hatred be dissolved. I hope that we have sown some seeds of love and goodness, and I pray that the seeds grow to perpetuate an ever-widening circle that will bring more peace and tranquility to the world.
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