The Most Vulnerable Group In This Pandemic

Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

We have been at various levels of lockdown for over three months now. We have locked ourselves in our homes not to protect the strong youth who are very likely to survive the virus. We have locked ourselves in order to protect those who may not survive. The elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are the people that come into mind when we think of the reason for the lockdown. There is however one group that almost everyone forgot. We forgot a group that always needs our support, but during this difficult time, they need it more than ever. We have forgotten refugees. We have forgotten that a virus, deadly to countries with top of the line healthcare system, can be very fatal to them. Once you start looking at the conditions they live, it is very easy to see why they are truly vulnerable, and why they need all the help they can get.

Let’s walk through some established scenarios for the most vulnerable and see the conditions that they live in. We will start with a typical Syrian refugee living in one of the many camps established after they cross the border. You are living in an area with a large number of people. You are never truly isolated in any situation. The maximum protection and privacy that you have for your entire family is that one tent that is set up for you. You are barely afforded food and shelter, and what you are afforded is not enough for the winter already. You are worried about your elderly mother and your small kids. You want the best for them and want to protect them from everything. You left your entire life behind to provide a better future for them away from constant bombing and oppression. Now you are stuck waiting for a solution to your predicament. During all of this, a global pandemic hits that could cripple even the best healthcare systems in the world if they are not careful enough. You, in horrible hygiene conditions and with a lack of healthcare, if any, have now a deadly virus to worry about. You worry constantly about keeping your kids healthy and now you are unsure if the conditions might help the virus, not to mention your elderly mother. Does she have any underlying health issues that make the virus more deadly? These are the thoughts that would run across a typical Syrian father in the camps. In camps where there is not adequate conditions to live well before Coronavirus hit the world. I can only imagine the amount of anxiety that the family goes through, trying to provide the basis for the kids and themselves. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Now that we have covered the displaced outside of the border, let's talk about the internally displaced. With the economy crashing hard in the wake of the commonly known Caesar Act, many Syrians are now struggling to keep up with the basics with an estimated 80% living in poverty. They try to cut down on food and medicine to stretch it longer. In a time where health is of the essence, this may help to make the Coronavirus even deadlier if an outbreak hits. This is without mentioning that hospitals have become a regular target for bombing over the war, leaving many of them unable to operate at full capacity. This storm of conditions faces the average Syrian citizen, who is unable to do much to change his situation.

Moving on to another desperate situation in Libya. The North African country has been plagued by a war between two sides. Without going into too many irrelevant details, the conflict has only made conditions worse and ripe for the virus. The conditions have gotten so bad that this has been a question on some of the civilians living there caught in the cross-fire, "I sometimes wonder, 'which death is gonna be worse? Catching Corona or being instantly attacked by a missile?'" As quoted from a New York Times Investigation-which I encourage you to watch to show the true conditions. The front line is moving, and you move back with it in order to simply stay alive. You are pushed back into denser and denser areas, making social distancing pretty impossible. Your hospitals are already overwhelmed, but now they are becoming targets as well. Neither side is willing to back down, and you as a resident are stuck between staying in your home waiting for the killer shell or the killer virus outside. The basic mercy which compels all logical human action is gone in warzones. This leaves you in a deadly dilemma. There is nothing that you can do, and no matter what you choose, you are likely to be harmed in some way.

Visiting the last stop in this train of desperation, we stop at one of the world's worst famines and humanitarian crises. We stop in the impoverished country of Yemen. The story of a war that was not supposed to last long, but it did. This is a story that we have heard far too often, but that is not our focus right now. What we are focusing on is the number of people that are living in conditions where we should not allow anyone to live in. In a global pandemic where health is of the utmost importance, half of the country's medical facilities are closed. An estimated 2 MILLION children are acutely malnourished. 24 million-80% of the population- are in need of humanitarian aid, 10 million of whom are one step away from famine. The last shocking information is that 18 million of the people in Yemen do not have enough clean water or access to adequate sanitation. These are shocking numbers in which the Yemeni population is faced with a recipe for catastrophe. The conditions are ripe for an outbreak of cases, and with a large number of the medical facilities closed, you wonder what will happen when the virus strikes.

With these facts lying straight in our faces, we are now confronted by a new issue. What will we do towards helping these causes? The answer is straight forward and expected as well. We donate and help however we can, however small. No action is too small to make a difference and whatever we can to help is appreciated. While all three situations mentioned and others I could not fit into this article are worthy of a mention, I would focus mostly on Yemen. You can help through donating to any of the following: Yemen Aid, The Yemen Foundation, Islamic Relief, UNHCR, Unite 4 Humanity. I hope that with the combined efforts of selfless human souls we could do something to help those truly in need. We have the luxury of safety and being able to take precautions, they do not. We can do something about it, so let's try and place all humans on an equal footing in terms of access to both food and basic health precautions. Perhaps then humanity can move forward in its slow wheel of progress.