Travel Vlog – Refugee Camps in Lebanon

So I want to go everyone. I've never really done a travel vlog before but I decided to do one for this particular trip because of the significance of it. I traveled to Lebanon to visit some of these Syrian refugee camps that are there and deliver winter aid. I traveled from my home airport which is Dulles International in Washington DC to Turkey and then from Turkey to Beirut, Lebanon. Here's a little bit of what happened on the way and during my trip

just finished security headed to my date.

So this will do area in the lounge in the Istanbul airport. It's pretty cool. They give you disposable slippers and even disposable prayer rugs and a little masala here walking to my gate to catch my flight for Beirut I came across a shop selling a whole bunch of these evil eye talismans man, I don't even know what to say why. Finally boarding my flights to favorite job.

Took me about two to three hours to get through customs and immigration. In Beirut, it was just that the line was really, really long.

First thing I did in Beirut was to go get a shawarma. Most of Beirut that I saw that night was pretty dark. And I was told it's because of the power outages and a lot of the buildings were dilapidated. Honestly, it was kind of sad to see it. This picture here actually is brighter than reality. Nothing that's because of the iPhone night mode. We did stop by this area, which was quite beautiful. On the coast. It's known as Roche. I'm hope I'm saying that properly. The view was just stunning, even at nighttime.

So down to the first day, this is my main man in from human appeal, who basically put this whole trip together for me drove past the explosion, or the aftermath of the explosion that took place in Beirut in 2020. Headed to an area known as Addison, which is where the Syrian refugee camps are in Lebanon. And this is what we saw on the way

it was certainly beautiful to see the snowfall and the scenery. But on the other hand, they were telling me that all this snow means that the refugees are having a very, very difficult time dealing with the snow and obviously dealing with the cold as well.

So right behind me here are the Syrian refugee camps. It's right over the border from serious those mountains behind those mountains is Syria. These camps, I've been told have about 50,000 families that are here to get hit by snowstorms, they just had a storm and I'm told another one is coming as well. So this is what we're we're here to see and we're here to give some a shot.

These living conditions were horrible. I mean, I don't know what else to say. This particular quote unquote, house tent, you know, whatever you want to call it. Here's a tour of it. This is the main living room area.

And here is pretty much the rest of the house. This is kitchen, laundry room.

Sink. I mean, it's all this is this is the house, this is what it is.

And right in here is the bathroom. And you can see there's no real separation between the bathroom and the rest of the Concord house. So just wanted to show you what it's actually like here in the refugee camps. Oftentimes when we hear camps, we think of a very comfortable place but it's it's not

like that,

let me show you

this is what their alleys are like this is where they're living.

As you can see, it's not it's not even safe to walk here. But this kids that live here play here, this is this is the this is

this campaign or soil, it's been snowing for the last couple of days, it's minus four degrees right now really cold families here, just to keep warm, they collect food, they kick plastic, they burn it isn't good for them or the environment, but they have no choice. Because otherwise they will freeze because of the severe conditions here. And you can see there's a fire here, this plaster in this metal bin if you like, you have the whole family here to keep homes.

So let me introduce you to what's happening here we have fuel that can sustain them. Hopefully in this winter, they can get some heat going. And then we have two food packs per family here to provide food for them. And then lastly, this winter kit, we have hats, scarves, and blankets for them. Even though for us, it may not seem like a lot. And this may seem like things that, you know, we we don't even think about this stuff. But for them, this is everything. This is their life, this is how they survive in the winter.

So I was able to come and visit this particular, I don't even know what to call it dwelling, it's not really house, it's just seems like it's put together with scraps, the roof is leaking.

Honestly, I'm a little bit at a loss for words, especially when I think about the way I live. And, you know, my family lives in compared to this.

But this is actually a happy day, because our sister here did receive some aid and she got food, she was unable to actually cook for herself before number one because without food number two, there was no fuel. She was burning rubber and plastic just to get some warmth to but handle that now she has fuel. Hopefully, hopefully this will last year, some time where she can actually take advantage of the food and cook the food and get some warmth. In this place. I wish you could touch and feel the surfaces because everything is damp and everything is wet, and everything is cold.

I'm wearing socks right now. And I'm cold and I don't I can't imagine being here at night when the temperature drops. And when another storm comes through. And it snows more and more and more. But have been whatever you know we can do.

It's it's something has been that and i i For me, I know this doesn't seem like a lot. But when I know it's speaking the sister, this means everything to her and her family.

And I'm really happy to be able to come in and put a face to the donation that I've been collecting. You know, honestly, one of the things about empathy

is, unless you connect with someone, you can't feel what they're feeling. A lot of times when we donate, and we give, they're just these names and just these people in these numbers and these figures, and we say, you know, there's 50,000 refugees here, and but these are people and they're living their lives, and they're dealing with this stuff on it on a daily basis. You know, for us, we look at that. $95 And we're like, can I afford to give $95 You know, what am I willing to give up for that? $95 But for these people this is, this is their life. And you know, this is how there's surviving. And I really wish I could bring every one of you here with me to come see how these

people are, are living the sister here with her children. She's living here for 10 years. And that was really weird for me to hear that because when I think of refugees, I always think temporary, right? Like they're just in a temporary bad situation. But she's been here for 10 years living here. And this is her life. There's no you know, somebody was saying a lot of these people are are not looking for anything forward and not looking for the for the next year. Or, you know, where will I be in five years or 10 years? They're just looking to survive today. This season. They're looking to survive this winter right now. So I hope they can you can just get a glimpse of what these what you

know, our brothers and sisters what their lives are like.

You saw the cause of it. I can see you well you can ozone them. It's freezing cold right now. Um

Working and I'm still not getting warm, I'm so glad I brought gloves because my, through the gloves, my hands are freezing right now. So very cold. I can't believe people live here without any type of heat, without anything to keep them warm, I can't imagine what it's like being here at nighttime, the sun is still up, it's still not dark yet and it's already so cold. That is just some of what I saw in this particular refugee camp. And I know I could have gotten more footage but I'm just gonna be real with you, I really wanted to just experience it, you know, put the camera down and just connect with people and just be there myself in the moment. But I'll share this particular image

with you which is a standout image for me and that is the spirit of these people with all the suffering and pain that they're going through and the difficulty their spirit is not broken. As you can see these kids are smiling and they're hopeful. So we those who can actually help should not lose hope either. And take these children and these refugees as an inspiration to do as much as we can do

while in Lebanon, I also got the chance to visit the city of slight debt which is a beautiful city also on the coast there are a lot of refugees there for example Palestinian refugees and they're living well below the poverty line so I got the chance to deliver some aid to them some some food packages

I also went to go visit a refugee family in one of the old parts of the town

so this particular refugee family in slay Deb lived on the top floor of this building and I just want you to see what this climb was like to get all the way to the top and the man who lives there is actually partially blind

yo

yo

so that's just a small glimpse into my stay in Lebanon and here I'm headed out to the airport to go to Turkey and then home from Turkey. But here's what happened in Turkey

Yeah, Turkey got hit by a snowstorm and it was pretty bad. All the flights got canceled so I was stuck in Turkey for a few days. I really missed home at this point, but there's nothing I could do. I couldn't even actually go out and C is stumble. There was so much snow roads were closed places were closed. The blue mosque was closed but I got to see snow in Turkey

so the flight is delayed, but I'm hoping today a lot that is gonna just be a delay and not a cancellation shot.

So I hope you liked my very first travel vlog most of it was shot by me on my cell phone. So excuse the footage and like I said, I've never done one of these before. It is a lot of work I realized while doing it that sometimes I wanted to just experience things rather than, you know, get them on film but handled I do realize it gave you the chance to see and experience some of what I experienced. If you'd like to see more of these let me know I might have to upgrade my equipment a little bit. So let's see. Thank you for watching Zakum on the head off, like subscribe, share all that YouTube stuff, not used to it but you know you got to do what you got to do. So make sure you

do that the link to donate is actually below so the campaign is done. But I left the just giving page open so people still want to give you can still give and the donations will still go to the refugees during winter insha Allah I'll catch you later take care said I'm ready to lay wabarakatuh

Aloha