MINNEAPOLIS — The end of the decade unfortunately does not mark the end of an ongoing conflict in Syria.
But even as the now-regional conflict continues, so do the efforts by the Minnesota-based Alight to help those displaced and suffering from the violence.
“The conflict started in 2011, so it’s actually been going for years now,” said Daniel Wordsworth, the CEO of Alight, formerly the American Refugee Committee.
Wordsworth continued: “The problem with the conflict, it kind of oscillates between all different things, you know you have the conflict starting within Syria, and then you have literally millions of refugees being forced to move. About 30 to 40 percent of the country being forced to flee their homes.”
What Alight is doing on the ground
It’s those refugees – both those seeking shelter inside and outside of Syria – that Alight has been helping through its partner organization, Questscope, and others on the ground. Wordsworth traveled to Syria in mid-December to meet with the teams and see the outreach, himself.
“There are literally thousands of people working in hundreds of locations across all of Syria, so it’s given us the chance, really since the conflict began, to have a huge impact on that country,” Wordsworth said, adding: “We’re in any of the towns that you hear about – whether it’s Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama – there are these sort of infamous cities of Syria, where we’ve had teams in all of those places that are on a daily basis delivering life-saving assistance, and they’ve been doing it year after year.”
And Alight also focuses on helping people in all aspects of their lives: from providing shelter, to offering job training for adults, to holding classes for children, to providing medical and mental health services.
“When you have a war that goes on for eight years, that’s a large part of a child’s educational life. So how do you keep providing education even in this setting? So we’ve been trying to work on that. And then you have kids graduating, and you have young people who want to make a life. And they want to get married. So they need to have a job. So the other thing we’ve been working on is helping people get real livelihoods where they can earn some money and begin making a life,” Wordsworth described.
A story of simple pleasures
And if that alone doesn’t shed light on the reality of living among conflict, Wordsworth believes the story of an unusual dinner request, does.
“I had a chance to have dinner with a number of the team that work inside Syria. And when I asked them what they wanted to have for dinner, they said they wanted ice cream. So we ordered in Syria, Damascus-style ice cream,” Wordsworth said.
He continued: “And then I thought, I suppose that’s what happens when you live in war for eight years, you decide if I want ice cream tonight, I’m going to have ice cream. You’re not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. So you make sure you live the life you want to live in that day.”
Alight’s commitment continues… they hope our compassion does, too
“I think one of the challenges in talking to people about Syria is the fact it’s gone for so long. And I think people now, they’d be tempted to begin tuning out,” Wordsworth said.
But then Wordsworth added: “Eight years seems like a long time. If you’re living it, it seems like an eternity. But is that the length of our compassion? These are still people. They’re still grappling with these things every day. We’re still there with them. And I suppose I would just ask people to let their compassion be like elastic and stretch long enough to go for eight years, and people to still care about this country.”
If you’d like to learn more about Alight’s efforts – and how you can help – just go to: wearealight.org