COMMENT As Syrian refugees still try to cross the jealously-guarded Lebanese border daily, I couldn’t help but feel home will never be the same again for 1.2 million Syrians already in the Beqaa Valley camps, a few miles inside Lebanon.

Blinded, bomb-deafened, maimed, injured or simply displaced by a war they never asked for, more than half the refugees are innocent children who may never know what a normal childhood means.

Worse still, if you are a Syrian child in a refugee camp here, life is anything but normal. Especially when you cannot go to a regular school, mingle with children your own age and dream of a future.

Girl wonders when she can go home as aid arrives in the background...

But glued by unbreakable family values, missing or lost family members are immediately embraced by extended families making the refugees community a close and tight nuclear unit.

Child adoption is not an option. Even without the chaos of civil war, as a syariah law country, Syria does not recognise or provide for adoptions of Muslim children, according to the US Embassy in Damascus.

Children deserve to express their creative energies, and this little girl is not giving up.

Interestingly, most of the refugees left comfortable jobs and homes with only a sense of self-pride and dignity to show. Among them are teachers, doctors, nurses - all victims of conflict and reluctant prisoners of their painful destiny.

Refugees are becoming more vulnerable by the day, and they are living in a stressful context with no way out.

Last year, the World Food Programme cut rations to 1.6 million Syrian refugees and those living in Lebanon only had US$13 to spend on food each month.

Reportedly, mothers tied scarves around their children’s bellies at night so they don’t wake up crying from stomachache because of hunger.

Picturesque snow-capped mountains rising above the Beqaa Valley belie the unforgiving cold that families at the camps endure in silence at sub-zero night temperatures.

Last year’s deadly winter was the worst in years with thick snow and storms laying siege to refugees who had nowhere to flee. The number of eventual fatalities went beyond shocking.

For many, the five-year conflict has numbed any hope of returning to their homeland.

The host country, with a population of 4.5 million, has been very tolerant but almost half the people in their own country are now non-nationals.

The growing number of 1.2 million Syrians and 425,000 Palestine refugees, from 60 years ago, lend a grey uneasiness given Lebanon’s confessional system of sectarian politics.

Forgotten how to play

Mercy Malaysia’s team arrived on Jan 13, its fourth mission, to help Syrian refugees located in five Bekaa Valley camps - Farah, Auda, Abrar, Faida and Ewak.

They successfully reached out to almost 500 families and over 2,500 refugees delivering humanitarian assistance and much-needed hope for their neglected children.

Consisting of team leader En Norazam Ab Samah, assisted by Mohammad Said Alhudzari and Muhammad Abdullah Ishari, they distributed food parcels, blankets, heaters, fuel, medicines, clinic supplies and set up a special child-friendly environmental space.

Last Friday, Mercy Malaysia opened the much-needed Child-Friendly Centre for the young ones at the Faida camp. It was priceless to watch the faces of joy on the young children.

Designed to let children play in safety, learn new things, listen to story-tellers and express themselves through games, it can help them return to some form of normalcy.

Mercy Malaysia team leader Pak Azam lights up the faces of children at Faida camp

Mercy Malaysia team leader Pak Azam said it best: “Children who have forgotten how to play can break anyone's heart. Our work here is far from done, this is just the beginning.”

He is talking about mobile clinics, more food and medical aid, and of course hope for the children who remain the future of a fractured nation.

They could very well become a lost generation.

HARMANDAR SINGH, who serves as an exco member of Mercy Malaysia, led Mercy’s embedded media unit to Syrian refugee camps across the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon last week. To help Mercy Malaysia help Syrian refugees, visit www.mercy.org.my .