UN convoy supports vulnerable, displaced people in Rukban

It is just another day for Nour, to run with her friend in the cold, muddy desert, wearing only plastic slippers to protect her cold feet. The children welcome their teacher at the door of their “classroom” and start class, sharing the one book they have. The children can barely see the words because the room is too dark. “We are used to it!” they say. Many of these children have to get by with only one meal a day according to the UN teams on the ground.

“I have one book for the first grade that I carried with me when I fled my hometown in Homs says one of the volunteer teachers. We also have one book for the second grade!” Says Abdel Fatah Al-Khaled, who also works as a volunteer teacher in Rukban and is displaced from Palmyra.

More than 40,000 displaced people live in the remote Rukban ‘makeshift’ settlement in south-eastern Syria, on the border with Jordan. Families are stranded in an extremely dire situation enduring living conditions unimaginable to most.

“Food is scarce and I cannot get diapers or even medicine for my sick daughter.

“My daughters are living an extremely tough life here with me. Food is scarce and I cannot get diapers or even medicine for my sick daughter.” Says Eida, a displaced woman from Homs who has been living in Rukban for 4 years. “We pay 1000 SYP (2$) for one litre of water. And 500 SYP (1$) for some bread that is barely enough for the day”. This is 5 times the price of bread in Damascus.

The vast majority of the residents in Rukban makeshift settlement are women and children. Women find themselves alone caring for their children with little to no income, under horrendous circumstances.

On February 6th, 2019, over 300 humanitarian workers from the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) arrived at Rukban makeshift settlement, in the largest humanitarian convoy in the Syria crisis to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the people in Rukban.

The mission reached Rukban after weeks of negotiation and is expected to last approximately one week.