by Zeid Al-Khail Kassouha and Jihan Taha

15 July 2008

Damascus, Syria: As a UNV volunteer Registration Clerk working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), every day I meet Iraqi refugees who have sold everything they own to flee their country and have nothing to live on by the time I speak to them.

This daily contact made me and all my volunteer colleagues deeply conscious of the importance of our fundraising assignment on World Refugee Day. We know how even a small amount of money can help an entire refugee family: to pay rent, to cover the expenses of their everyday life while prices continue to rise.

There wasn't much time. Donations could only be made upon arrival and departure of spectators at the fundraising concert, and during a 15-minute break in between: 90 minutes altogether.  

The World Refugee Day fundraising concert was organized by UNHCR at the Opera House in Damascus on 16 June 2008. Before 1,300 spectators, the Iraqi musician and Oud virtuoso Naseer Shamma played some of his most moving compositions about Iraq in support of his compatriots, many of whom are now refugees in Syria.

About two hours before the start of the concert, we met at the Opera House. There were around 20 volunteers, UNV volunteers mostly, from UNHCR Registration, Field Operations, Community Services and the Protection Unit, and some United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) volunteers too.

None of us knew exactly what to expect, but despite the Germany versus Austria football game that evening, and the thousand other things we could have been doing, being a volunteer there and then made sense.

We were put in charge of transparent boxes to collect donations before, during and after the concert. Dotted around the opera next to our donation boxes, we knew that the cash donations as well as the money from ticket sales would go towards helping UNHCR's financial assistance scheme for the most vulnerable Iraqi families living in Syria.

Encouraged by the general atmosphere, Naseer Shamma's entrancing music and his words of encouragement for the future of all refugees, the audience passed by our boxes, giving money and trying to find out more about refugees. All to one end, and for the first time at such an event: to provide help to people in dire need of assistance.

After five hours in the Opera House, our assignment came to an end. As the last concert-goers trickled out, not knowing how much money had been raised, we went away feeling that volunteering for this event was part of our mission to help refugees, in a different way from what we do every day as UNV volunteers.
 
The ticket sales and the donations collected at the concert came to a total of over a million Syrian pounds – about US$ 24,000 – enough to provide financial assistance to close to 20 refugee families for at least a year.

Zeid Al-Khail Kassouha



The war might have struck a big blow to human lives and property, but it can't strike the will to live and passion to help shown by the people.

When I volunteered to help in collecting donations for Iraqi refugees, I didn't think that it would be such a wonderful experience.

The day after the concert, we received an e-mail from the UNHCR Public Information Office in UNHCR thanking us for our participation. It declared that we had collected more than US$24,000.  I was so glad and I said, "Thank God, this is the outcome of our work yesterday".

It is our hope that by giving this donation to the Iraqi refugees, we will set an example that, no matter how small a volunteer group is, we will follow through to ease the suffering of these unfortunate people.

As a Registration Clerk, I had the chance to meet many Iraqi families who were lucky enough to survive and managed to come to Syria, but hundreds of their family members have been killed, abducted or lost; people's homes are gone and people's businesses have been ruined.

I think that being a survivor of the horrible situation in Iraq doesn’t need just courage, it needs miracles.

I am so proud that I was one of the UNV volunteers who have been able to help after witnessing the thousands of painful stories of Iraqi refugees and the psychological problems that they bring with them.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped the Iraqi refugees in Syria, trying to make them forget the moments of grief, pain, fear and shock, they had experienced in Iraq.

Thanks to all UNHCR staff and especially the registration team in Douma, who are doing a great job, and thanks to all who participated and helped to prepare for the Naseer Shamma concert.


Jihan Taha