How Do You Become a Humanitarian?

August 19, 2017Ghiath Alddin Zeen was forced to leave Syria, but continues to find ways to help his people. On World Humanitarian Day, meet a real humanitarian.“We started as a volunteer team in Damascus city—8 women and 8 men—in 2001,” says Ghiath Alddin Zeen. “In our free time, we were distributing food baskets during Ramadan, and second hand toys for the poor families.”Ghiath is now the CEO ofGhiras A-Nahda, a nongovernmental organization of more than 125 Syrian humanitarians. One of the NGO ’s projects,A Challenge to Survive, is helping people living in besieged areas of Syria to grow mushrooms at home as a healthy source of food.Half a million people have been unable to leave the besieged areas and many are starving.After the revolution started, they became an official organization with permission to do charity work in Syria and expanded into the rural areas of Damascus. They distributed medical bags and food baskets. They also conducted first aid workshops for health workers, showing them how to help injured people at their homes because they could not take them to hospitals or they would be arrested.  Around 2012, Ghiath was forced to flee to Turkey. But some of his colleagues remained and continued to work in their offices located within the besieged areas around Damascus.Ghiath says half a million people have been unable to leave the besieged areas. They ’ve been cut off from food supplies and have little access to fresh produce or sources of protein...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news