“We come to bear witness, not to know all the answers. Just talking like this keeps hope alive,” said World YMCA Secretary General Carlos Sanvee, as 100 people from across the worldwide YMCA Movement came together for an online webinar on the crisis in the Middle East which began on 28 February with US and Israeli air strikes on Iran.
The meeting was addressed by the IFRC and three YMCA colleagues from East Jerusalem, Jordan, and Lebanon which has just launched a USD 200,000 emergency humanitarian appeal.
Cristhian Cortez Cardoza, Deputy Regional Director for Emergency Response & Operations for the Middle East and North Africa region at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), spoke of multiple crises, ‘each accelerating the other, each spreading geographically, at a time when the humanitarian sector worldwide is underfunded and under pressure’. Likening YMCA’s National Movements with the Red Cross/Crescent’s National Societies, he called for all aid – in a highly politicised situation – to be impartial, aimed at preserving the dignity of all.
Issam Bishara, CEO of YMCA Lebanon, reported 850 dead and over 850,000 displaced in Lebanon to date, with serious energy and medical shortages. In the last ten days YMCA Lebanon has supplied over 200 primary health centres with over half a million medical packs, and has just launched its emergency appeal to raise USD 200,000 to deliver a two-phase response.
First, it will provide immediate emergency relief: mattresses, blankets and heating fuel for families in shelters; food parcels and safe water; hygiene kits, diapers and milk for children; and to continue supporting the Ministry of Public Health’s Programme for Chronic Medications, which is distributed with the help of YMCA.
Second, it will provide psychological support to frontline workers and youth support groups, offering family resilience sessions, launching a ‘Drawing for hope’ creative arts programme for displaced children.
“We are only 50 people in YMCA Lebanon”, he said. “The situation is grave. Many people are sleeping in tents, and with heavy rains in the last days those tents are unusable.”
“You are holding high the YMCA flag in Lebanon”, said Carlos.
Peter Nasir, CEO of YMCA East Jerusalem spoke of life lived with a backdrop of sirens and bombing, and daily tragedy. “Irrespective of how low any of us may feel, we owe it to future generations to pass on the baton with a smile”, he said. “One of our primary roles, like YMCA Lebanon, is providing psychosocial support to traumatised children and young people. Like them, we all have to believe that we can reach a horizon of normality.”
Kamil Rafidi, a Board member at the newly reconstituted YMCA Jordan, described the impossibility of remaining neutral when the majority of rockets are flying over Jordanian airspace. He talked about incipient YMCA programmes to install solar panels, given seriously diminished national energy reserves, and – again – providing psychosocial support for young people.
World YMCA President Soheila Hayek closed the meeting: “Yes, we must bear witness at this time. It has just been said that ‘not all heroes wear capes’ – and many YMCA colleagues, for instance, are offering psychological support while bearing their own grief and pressure. What is at stake is the social, economic and moral fabric of the entire world. The YMCA must continue to be a beacon of light in a darkening world.”