BEIRUT: Every Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut’s airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile.
The Sport 4 Development program, run by the UN children’s agency, aims to bring 12,000 children, mostly Syrian refugees, to blacktops and turf pitches this year to teach the basics of soccer and basketball, and to ease the pain of war and displacement.
“We try to get them out of their stressful environments and the frights that they’ve lived through,” said Maher Nakib, 40, the technical director of Hoops Lebanon, the sports association behind the project.
Of the one million Syrian refugees the UN says are living in Lebanon, more than half are under 18 years old. Syrians here face legal and other forms of discrimination, and many parents are hesitant to let their children play outside in the crowded alleys of Beirut’s poorer neighborhoods, where most of the refugees live.
The month-long Hoops program provides a safe environment where the children can blow off steam, as well as learn self-confidence and teamwork.
“They come back home and they’re too tired to fight,” smiles Fatima Tayjan, a refugee from the Syrian city of Aleppo who has enrolled three of her four children in the program. When her family of six returns home to their crowded two-bedroom apartment, the children have “released all their energy and they are ready to talk to each other,” she said.
Maram Al-Malwa, a 17-year-old paid volunteer who came up in the program, recalls her own feelings of isolation when she and her family fled from Aleppo to Lebanon five years ago. “It was a new country, even a new accent,” she said.
But now she is irrepressible, rising on the balls of her feet when she speaks and helping coaches reach through to children in the group activities. She is one of a handful of the children pulled aside for a six-month mentorship on leadership and coaching.
“You grow, you experience victories, setbacks, you learn to fight for yourself, and you become more confident,” she said.
When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes or were forced into Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, they set to work mending the national fabric through schools, scouts, and athletics, with the support of Arab nationalist groups.
But Syrians have not been able to count on the same sense of solidarity. And as the UN and aid groups have struggled to assist the nearly 5 million Syrian refugees scattered across the region, the focus has been on schooling, aid and shelter, with few resources left over for cultural or recreational activities.
“Children won’t necessarily express themselves unless you give them an outlet, and sports are an excellent medium to do so,” said Nakib, the technical director.
Rania Qadri, who fled from Syria’s southern Daraa province, said she saw her oldest daughter change before her eyes.
“She used to be introverted, she wouldn’t speak to anyone,” she said. “Now she comes home and tells me, ‘I’ve made friends, we’ve been playing soccer, we’ve been playing games and sports.’“
Staffers are trained to identify struggling children, those who lash out and those who retreat into their shells. Psychologists meet with parents weekly to discuss healthy relationships and domestic violence.
The group sessions often bring to light domestic disputes, learning disabilities or experiences of sexual violence. The children are then referred to specialized non-governmental organizations for further support.
In other cases, children will reveal that they are not enrolled in school, and staffers will direct them to organizations that can help. Two-thirds of Syrian children in Lebanon do not attend school, according to UN figures, in part because the country’s underfunded public education system has been overwhelmed by the new arrivals.
On a recent Sunday, the children lined up to dribble through cones, shoot layups and learn cheers and stretches.
“You see a lot of cases of shyness or stubbornness, and you immediately see them change when they’re here,” said Al-Malwa, the teenage volunteer. “I feel like I’m responsible, like I’m in charge of a group.”
In Lebanon gyms, playtime and escape for Syrian children
In Lebanon gyms, playtime and escape for Syrian children
Delivery drivers dodge debris to keep Gulf fed under Iranian attacks
- Thousands of couriers on motorcycles have been working full throttle to ensure food, home supplies and whatever else a customer might need is available
- UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan walked with his massive entourage through Dubai Mall pausing for an occasional selfie
DUBAI: As air raid sirens wail and explosions echo off glass skyscrapers, Gulf delivery drivers have emerged as unlikely heroes, providing a lifeline to frightened residents sheltering from Iranian attacks.
Airports, embassies, residential areas and military installations across the region have come under fire from daily salvos of Iranian missiles and drones since the war between the Islamic republic, Israel and the US broke out on Saturday.
While weaving through Gulf metropolizes’ traffic was never entirely safe, delivery drivers now face danger from the skies with the risk of falling debris from drones and interceptors.
Nonetheless, thousands of couriers on motorcycles have been working full throttle to ensure food, home supplies and whatever else a customer might need is available with the tap of an app.
During the war’s first hours, Agyemang Ata was in a mall in Dubai, waiting for an order when the first explosions rang out, but the 27-year-old has no plans to leave.
“My mom, sister and family have been calling me but I told them I am OK, they don’t need to worry about me,” Ata told AFP.
“I will stay here and work. Dubai is a safe place for me.”
To most residents, drivers like Ata were just an anonymous army keeping the hassles of daily life at bay — and to some, another traffic hazard on already busy streets.
Now, however, people are heralding their vital role, with many on social media describing them as “heroes” risking their lives to keep the Gulf running.
Further north in Kuwait, driver Walid Rabie said the fear was constant.
“We carry our lives along with the orders,” he told AFP
At least seven civilians have been killed in the Gulf since Iran began its attacks — many of them foreign laborers, who make up a large part of the region’s workforce.
Washington said six US service members have also been killed, four of them in Kuwait.
‘I have struggled’
The UAE has seen a disproportionate number of attacks, with the Ministry of Defense saying authorities have worked to intercept more than 900 drones and about 200 missiles fired at their territory.
“I’m afraid, I won’t lie,” said Franklin, a delivery driver in Dubai.
The need to earn a living outweighs other anxieties over the war, but maintaining his regular pace has been difficult under the new circumstances, and the number of orders has dropped.
“Before, I used to complete between 10 and 15 orders a day,” he explained. “But since this started, I have struggled to get even eight.”
The life of the drivers cuts a stark contrast to the region’s numerous influencers on social media, who have continued to party during the war, or to the city’s well-heeled expats, some of whom have dropped six figures on chartered flights out of neighboring countries to escape.
In Bahrain, where the sounds of explosions have continued for a sixth day, a foreign worker at a food delivery company said the situation was worrying at first but he has begun to get used to it — especially since he needs the job.
“I go out to work almost every day. I follow the news and hope the crisis will end,” said Ajit Arun, 32.
“We take precautions while driving, especially when the sirens sound.”
Across the Gulf, governments have implored their citizens and residents to avoid posting misinformation about the war and rely on official channels for news.
Others have sought to present an image of normality.
UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan walked with his massive entourage through Dubai Mall pausing for an occasional selfie.
But on the city’s streets, the reality of war weighed heavily, casting questions for some over future plans to stay in the Gulf.
“If things continue like this, I cannot risk my life,” said Franklin. “It would be better for me to return to my country.”
