South Coast Today - syria

What school is like in Syria's Aleppo

Timothy Gillespie — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 11:48:59 +0000

[My dad] put fear in me, to the point that I think staying in the street is safer than going to school.

Aleppo, Syria - The recent advance on Aleppo by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad has spurred thousands of residents to flee for the Turkish border.

Pro-Assad forces, backed by Russian air raids, are seeking to retake areas of Syria's largest city that are under the control of rebel groups. Aleppo is divided between areas controlled by rebel groups and by the Syrian state.

Many of Aleppo's schools have continued to operate despite the war. Some have moved underground for protection from bombs, resulting in improved security even as Aleppo's humanitarian crisis worsens.

Note: On Wednesday, four Syrian youngsters from Aleppo will start school in Shelburne after arriving in Halifax on Sunday. After fleeing Aleppo, the family lived for months as refugees in Beriut, Lebanon. The three teen-aged boys and thier little sister are part of the Syrian family being sponsored by 875-SHARES in Shelburne.

SEE AL JAZEERA STORY HERE

SEE PREVIOUS SCT STORY HERE

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West, USA, NATO morally bankrupt in Syria, says Ignatieff

Timothy Gillespie — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 18:27:42 +0000

250,000 Syrians dead, 7 million displaced
Michael Ignatieff inWashington Post: As Russian planes decimate Aleppo, and hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria’s largest city prepare for encirclement, blockade and siege — and for the starvation and the barbarity that will inevitably follow — it is time to proclaim the moral bankruptcy of American and Western policy in Syria.

Actually, it is past time. The moral bankruptcy has been long in the making: five years of empty declarations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go, of halfhearted arming of rebel groups, of allowing the red line on chemical weapons to be crossed and of failing adequately to share Europe’s refugee burden as it buckles under the strain of the consequences of Western inaction. In the meantime, a quarter-million Syrians have died, 7 million have been displaced and nearly 5 million are refugees. Two million of the refugees are children.

Note: The refugee family landing in Halifax Sunday and settling in Shelburne, Nova Scotia is from the embattled city of Aleppo

SEE FULL OP-ED IN WASH POST

SEE IGNATIEFF INTERVIEW ON CTV: https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=808472

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Syrian family enroute to Shelburne

Timothy Gillespie — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 10:40:38 +0000

Word has come that the Syrian family of seven sponsored by the Shelburne Area Refugee Sponsorship Committee is expected to arrive in Montreal Saturday and in Shelburne soon thereafter. A small contingent of the group is being organized for the arrival as "welcoming committee" at the Stanfield Intl Airport in Halifax.

The family includes two parents, three sons (14, 16 and 17), an eight-year-old daughter and a 74-year-old grandmother. The family fled the besieged Syrian town of Aleppo, which has been in the news this past week as a central point of the battle between forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad and Syrian rebel forces. Russia and the U.S. have accused each other of bombing raids in the city this week. The family has been living in a refugee camp near Beirut, Lebanon.

The teens will attend Shelburne Regional High School, where staff has been preparing a support plan for what they expect will be specific needs of the Syrian youngsters. The young girl will be going to Hillcrest Academy.

The Shelburne Area Refugee Sponsorship Committee – calling themselves 875.SHARES - has been hard at work this past week preparing a five-bedroom home on Water Street for the family. The house has been patched and painted and scrubbed throughout and has been outfitted with furniture, bedding, appliances and kitchen ware.

Other refugee support groups have formed in Shelburne, Barrington, Chester, Bridgewater, Hubbards, La Have, Liverpool, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Yarmouth. The Shelburne/Queens County Catholic Church Refugee Committee is sponsoring a second Syrian family in Shelburne.

Financial support comes from the federal government and from funds raised by each sponsoring organization. The 875.SHARES group has raised more than $30,000.

Besides housing and furniture, the sponsor group has arranged for computers, tablets and smart phones to help the family stay in touch and for clothing, transportation, health and dental care and English as a Second Language training for everyone in the family.

For more information or to donate, visit the 875.SHARES website at https://shelburnearearefugeesponsorship875shares.weebly.com/. The site includes a link to the CanadaHelps 875.SHARES donation page. CanadaHelps instantly generates an electronic receipt to each donor.

A fundraising auction with the "Family Treasures" theme has been scheduled for Feb. 20 at the Lion's Hall in Shelburne.

The group is asking for auction donations that reflect the theme, but ask that no electronics, old appliances or "one step away from the dump" items be offered.

Auction items can be dropped off at 180 Mowatt St or 188 Harriett St during the week before the auction.

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West, USA, NATO morally bankrupt in Syria, says Ignatieff

Timothy Gillespie — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 18:27:42 +0000

Michael Ignatieff inWashington Post: As Russian planes decimate Aleppo, and hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria’s largest city prepare for encirclement, blockade and siege — and for the starvation and the barbarity that will inevitably follow — it is time to proclaim the moral bankruptcy of American and Western policy in Syria.

SEE FULL OP-ED IN WASH POST

Note: The refugee family landing in Halifax Sunday and settling in Shelburne, is from the embattled city of Aleppo

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