Syrian refugee crisis spurs Chaney Cowboys to action

A spunky group of Chaney High School students ventured outdoors this week for a timely, heartfelt and uplifting experience for themselves, their school and, most importantly, their global community.

From a casual observer’s perspective, however, the sight of dozens of young people flying kites amid a fittingly blustery backdrop on the high school grounds resembled little more than an afternoon of fun and enjoyment.

From a closer vantage point, however, all of those soaring and colorful kites carried with them a higher and more noble purpose grounded in humanitarian compassion.

You see, members of Angela Dooley’s Advanced Placement English class at the West Side Youngstown high school had spent recent weeks studying the plight of Syrian refugees by reading memoirs written by refugees and a novel exploring the struggles of one Syrian refugee orphan.

In the course of that unit, the students developed a strong sense of empathy for the children and a better understanding of complex and troubling current international conflicts and crises.

They then transformed that learning experience into a making-a-difference experience through the kite-flying project. Students paid $2 for tickets to the event, and all proceeds from the kite-flying campaign and related fundraising projects will be donated to Save the Children, specifically earmarked for aid to the millions of Syrian refugees ripped apart from their homeland over the past several years as a result of the bloody Syrian civil war.

The students’ commitment to the campaign clearly contradicts the common perception of today’s young people as a selfish me-centered generation isolated from and ignorant of compelling global crises.

Their diligence and compassion in rising to a worthwhile challenge should serve as models for other young people – and all people for that matter – committed to improving the lot of the less fortunate in our increasingly shrinking global village.

GROWING REFUGEE CRISIS

The timing of the fundraiser could not be more apt. The crisis, after all, remains huge. The United Nations has identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring humanitarian assistance, of which more than 6 million are internally displaced within Syria, and some 5.7 million others outside of Syria. A high percentage of those hapless victims are children.

For more than seven years, the nation of 22 million citizens has been in a state of civil war between the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and various rebel and jihadi groups including ISIS.

The casualty toll of the dead exceeds 500,000, again many of them children.

Save the Children, which coincidentally is marking the 100th anniversary of its founding this week, has been on the front lines of providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced children ever since the strife began.

At the same time that STC and other private humanitarian organizations have been working to minimize the plight of refugees, some governments – including that of the United States – have been in effect aggravating the crisis.

For example, over the past two years of the administration of President Donald J. Trump, immigrants and refugees of war-torn lands such as Syria have witnessed once-welcoming gateways into the United States slam firmly shut.

Because of policies and executive orders from the president, the number of refugees entering this nation has declined dramatically.

According to the United Nations, in 2017, the United States accepted 3,024 Syrian refugees. In 2018, that number had plummeted to 62, an unbelievable 98 percent decline. Similar barriers have been erected in other countries.

That plight has been documented powerfully through a variety of first-person accounts, such as the chilling narrative of 3-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi’s drowning death on a Mediterranean Sea beach while struggling to find a new homeland. That heartbreaking story is recounted in the book “The Boy on The Beach” written by Alan’s aunt, Tima Kurdi.

Memoirs such as that of the Kurdi family commanded the Chaney High students to constructive and concerted action.

We wish them success and look for the community to help the students meet and beat their $500 goal.