Years of war, conflict and violence have left parts of Syria nearly unrecognizable, but other areas remain untouched. As groups heard this week from Rahaf Abdo, who was speaking across Southern Manitoba about her role as a field coordinator for a food assistance project that’s an MCC partner, no matter where you live in the country, you do not feel safe. She was in Southern Manitoba this week as special guest of Canadian Foodgrains Bank and MCC.

 

Six years ago she left her job as a lecturer in the IT engineering department of her local university in Syria to help distribute food boxes to those in need.

 

Morning show Co-Host Chris Sumner met and spoke with Rahaf, and was struck by the story she shared of how the war started for her... one night she went to bed, and the next morning she awoke to bombing outside her window with no warning or context of what was happening or why.

 

 

Chris also asked Rahaf why she made the leap to volunteering full-time with a humanitarian aid organization.

 

 

The group Rahaf volunteers with distributes up to 6,000 food baskets a month to Syrian families in need. She often puts herself in danger to reach those families, while thinking about her family and friends safety elsewhere in the country... but she wouldn’t have it any other way considering the good it’s doing.

 

 

According to the latest figures available, 6.7 million people in Syria are considered Food Insecure. 6.6 million people are internally displaced people, meaning they are no longer living in their home communities due to the conflict. There are 5.6 million Syrian refugees living in surrounding countries.