(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Thousands of Syrians living in refugee camps are receiving food, clothes and other charitable assistance from Balkan humanitarian agencies.
The crisis facing people displaced by the Syria conflict has galvanised NGOs around the world to action. Balkan-based organisations are among those trying to help the refugees.
According to aid workers from the Balkans, countless Syrians are living in tents, have no schools and clinics for treatment, and face shortages of food, electricity, water and firewood.
Jasmin Rexhepi, from Macedonia, made several trips to refugee camps on the Turkey-Syria border to deliver donations.
"Aid depended on the stock," he told SETimes. "Three ambulances with full equipment and other medical assistance, trailers with winter clothing for children and adults " [and] another truck with food and blankets."
"It is not easy to pass the borders with the goods and to divide them. But all that is co-ordinated with major international organisations," Rexhepi added.
International volunteers run improvised hospitals, schools and kitchens in the refugee camps, he said.
"Yet the camps are unsafe, and for that reason, our presence was only for a few hours, just to make sure that the aid got into the hands of civilians," Rexhepi said.
Along the border with Turkey there are dozens of refugee camps, most of them filled with children, women and old men, the relief worker said.
"They have no way to earn, so they are literally dependent on foreign aid," he added.
Macedonian NGOs have put out videos and brochures to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. They also set up bank accounts for anonymous donations, and drop-off sites for people to leave clothes.
Vedat Memedaliu is the only journalist from Macedonia to visit Syria. The Skopje-based reporter was in Manbij, near the border with Turkey.
"I was in Syria with the aid of Turkish human rights organization IHH. With my own eyes, I saw the fear and horror that Syrian children endure. In one camp, I saw more than 200 orphans, I saw old people, disabled people who begged for bread, clothing, water," he told SETimes.
"These child orphans do not trust adults, because they do not have what children in other countries have, because adults let their houses be destroyed and left them all alone," Memedaliu said.
"Syria does not need people from this region to fight," Memedaliu added. "It needs people who will organise humanitarian actions to help the refugees."
Bosnia and Herzegovina has also sent aid to Syrian refugees. Humanitarian activities are conducted in co-operation with the Turkish IHH organisation.
"The first convoy went on the road in January 2013 with two trucks of humanitarian aid" and a team of seven volunteers, said Zemira Gorinjac, the president of the Association for Solidarity in Sarajevo.
Some 40 tonnes of food were sent from BiH to help the Syrian refugees. More than 60,000 euros were collected for another operation.
"With that money, the IHH Turkey organisation was able to buy blankets, sponges and packages for babies," Gorinjac told SETimes.
The Islamic Community of Montenegro has collected funds in all mosques in the capital city of Podgorica to assist Syrian refugees.
Dogan Eskinat of the Turkish government's disaster and emergency management agency (AFAD), told SETimes that some 260,000 Syrian refugees are living in 25 refugee camps, all located in southeastern border towns.
"Up to now, Turkey has spent $5.2 billion to maintain the health, security conditions and other services for Syrian refugees," Eskinat said.
Turkey's newest camp opened in February. It provides 35,000 people with high-level health services, vocational training and educational courses, recreational fields and a wide range of social activities.
Three months ago, the Sarajevo-based "Merhamet" Muslim Charitable Society signed a protocol with AFAD to provide the camp with more than 100 tonnes of meat. "The rising contributions coming from the Balkans reveal that regional countries and citizens feel a responsibility regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East," Eskinat added.
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