Remarks at the Ribbon Cutting of “Peace and Hope,” a Syrian Children’s Art Installation on the National Mall
Remarks
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Thank you. As the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, I represent the part of the State Department that supports humanitarian operations around the world. The United States provides more humanitarian aid than any other government. Since the start of the Syrian crisis, we have given more than $2.9 billion.
This is the largest sum we have spent on any humanitarian response in a generation. But the need is vast and growing, as the calamity in Syria continues to unfold.
Syria used to be a middle class country where nearly every child was in school. In 2008 Syria’s people were hosting refugees from neighboring countries, and I traveled there to thank them. I never imagined that this land – so rich in history and antiquities, wheat and olive trees – could be so utterly broken.
More than half of Syria’s population – nearly eleven million people – have been forced to flee their homes. Whole neighborhoods have been bombed and destroyed. Schools, hospitals, workplaces are gone as well. Three quarters of Syrian children have lost a loved one and as many as three million are out of school. Half of all Syrian refugees are children.
On one of my more recent trips, I watched families arrive in the night, carrying their children bundled against the cold and all their worldly positions shrunk down to one suitcase. I met a father who broke down and cried as he talked about losing his nine-year-old son. I met a boy whose brother died in a chemical attack.
I have also visited cities and towns where 80 percent of Syrian refugees now live. In camps and urban neighborhoods throughout the region, years of exile take a toll on families and children.
Boys have become family breadwinners, because parents are injured or dead, or not permitted to work. I am talking about children as young as 8 working 14 hour days sometimes doing jobs that are hazardous to their health.
Girls have become child brides, because their families have no money and see no alternative. Sexual harassment and abuse are such a threat that some parents rarely let their daughters leave the house.
We and other donors are determined to do what we can to help Syria’s children. Together we launched an initiative called No Lost Generation. In the past year we have tripled the number of Syrian refugee children going to school.
Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the United States would provide nearly $500 million dollars in additional humanitarian aid to those affected by the crisis.
This money will help keep millions of people inside Syria alive by covering the costs of food, water, and medical care. It will fund schools. It will support our “Safe from the Start” initiative designed to protect women and girls against sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation. It will also aid countries neighboring Syria that are hosting millions of refugees.
Jordan, for instance, has absorbed six hundred thousand. That would be the equivalent of two out of every three Canadians suddenly showing up in the United States!
A large share of U.S. aid to refugees flows through the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. In a few minutes, UNHCR’s Shelly Pitterman, will describe life in camps like Za’atari Camp, and programs for children.
These include “child friendly spaces,” where kids can go to read and write, draw and paint, and play sports and games and get counseling. I visited one in Za’atari – and got pulled into a lively circle dance – a slightly different version of what we would recognize as the Hokey-Pokey!
These spaces help traumatized children heal. Staff say when some children arrive they cry or sit silently alone. Loud noises frighten them. So does the sound of airplanes. But within days, they begin to play, even laugh.
A girl named Emam goes to Za’atari’s child friendly space to escape, and imagine her yard back home, filled with lemon, fig, and olive trees. Here are her words:
Our beautiful garden has burned down together with our house. That is why we came here. I dream of grass: I love how it tickles the soles of my feet. Look around you. There is no color here in the camp. Everything is grey, the sand hurts my eyes and the stones hurt my feet. Color has disappeared from my life. The only place where I can see color is in the child friendly space. Sometimes I take off my shoes there. Then I close my eyes and pretend the carpet is grass.”
Emam loves to draw. Counselors say art is a form of therapy – a way to process memories and emotions. Over time, children’s artwork changes. There are fewer dead bodies, blood, and crying faces, and more smiling faces, flowers and trees.
I can only imagine what it meant to the children of Za’atari to paint this wonderful canvas that we are unveiling today. This project has given so many of them the chance to connect with others, to create something beautiful.
It is also important because it is here. Because it allows these children to speak directly to us. Because we can look at it and understand how much these children have in common with our own children. This canvas shouts the message that children are resilient. That they just need to be given a chance. It breaks through the barrier of language and distance, and lets us feel their boundless energy and their capacity for hope. The creators of this project have given them a voice. And it is important that we listen.
It is important because one can grow tired, fatalistic, overwhelmed, as crises seem to multiply with no end in sight. Whatever we give, and we have given generously, it is not enough to meet all of the needs. But please think of this: it is enough to make a life-saving difference.
What we need to remember is that the victims of these appalling conflicts are overwhelmingly civilians – just ordinary families. Families with children.
You can see from their vivid artwork and their many depictions of peace and hope that they have not given up. Even after facing dislocation, injury, hardship and loss, they have not given up.
Neither can we.
Thank you.
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Source: Dept. Of State – Releases
Collected Department Releases: Remarks at the Ribbon Cutting of "Peace and Hope," a Syrian Children"s Art Installation on the National Mall
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