The Syrian conflict is one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. Since 2011, the war in Syria has claimed thousands of lives and left 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. More than half the country's population has been forced to flee their homes, including 5.6 million refugees seeking safety in neighbouring countries and another 6.6 million who are internally displaced inside Syria.
And climate change is part of this crisis: Syria suffered a crippling drought between 2006 and 2010 that destroyed 60% of the farmland, turning it into desert land. One and a half million people became climate refugees and were driven from the farming areas of Syria into the cities, colliding with others who were already there, some refugees from the Iraq war.
In order to raise money for food, medical treatment and training for Syrian refugees, Act for Peace, an international aid charity, runs a "Ration Challenge" where participants pledge to eat the same rations as Syrian refugees for an entire week.
The ration box consisted of:
- 1.94kgs of rice
- 400g flour
- 300ml of vegetable oil
- 1 x 400g can of kidney beans
- 170g red lentils
- 85g dried chickpeas
- 120g tofu or sardines
View this post on InstagramYou may get a shock when you first open your ration box – it's not much for a week! We've designed the #RationChallenge to reflect, as closely as we can, what it's like to eat rations as a #Syrian #refugee in Jordan. The pack contains exactly the same #food, in almost the same quantities, as we distribute to refugees. Ready to challenge yourself, and make a real difference for refugees? Follow the link in our bio to sign up!
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The challenge also included a rewards system, whereby when you reach specified donation thresholds you are able to include additional foods in your rations for the week. Through my fundraising I managed to earn 170g of a vegetable (spinach), 120g of a protein (peanut butter), salt and a spice (vegetable stock).
The challenge ran from 13th-19th September and I managed to go the whole week without eating anything other than what was in my ration box, or that I earned as a reward for my fundraising. Whilst the servings were small, I had enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. As there are only a few ingredients to work with, I had most meals between 3 and 5 times during the week. Breakfast was typically crepes (flour and water) or flat bread with peanut butter, lunch and dinner was either rice and beans, rice and falafel, rice with spinach and tofu pancakes or rice and lentils.
During the week of the challenge food was constantly on my mind. I was always thinking of the best way to time my meals so that my next meal was not too far away. I tried to suppress my hunger by drinking water or tea. For the most part I managed ok. Thankfully, I was not too hungry, or too lethargic. I really missed fruit & vegetables, I never realised these were luxuries.
I lost 4 kilograms over the week of the challenge, despite not doing any of my usual exercise, which goes to show how calorie deficient the rations are - my rations amounted to just under 1,300 calories/day, significantly less than the recommended calorie intake for women of 2,000 calories/day. If you live off these rations long term, like many refugees do, you will not only be calorie deficient, you will also be lacking in protein, fibre, calcium, vitamin a, vitamin c, b12, potassium & folate (and quite possibly many other micronutrients).
And, the food refugees eat is only part of the hardship they face every day. Throughout the challenge I still had a warm and secure home, a job and access to transport, hygiene facilities and medical treatment, as well as some level of certainty over my future.
One of the lessons I will take from this challenge is how I could be doing more to help. On average, refugees live off $0.85/day, or $6/week. I could easily cut our weekly food bill by $6 each week and donate it so that another person can access food. I have since set up a monthly donation with Act for Peace so that I can do just this.
This challenge has also strengthened my resolve to do everything I can to stop climate change. As the planet warms, we are going to see more and more climate refugees, driven from their homes because their livelihoods have been destroyed, or they no longer have access to food and/or water. The forecast is that there will be up to 1 billion refugees in the coming decades as more and more of the earth becomes uninhabitable. It's especially unjust because the people who will become climate refugees will have done the least to cause planetary warming.
It's obviously important to help people once they become refugees, but it's infinitely better to stop the conditions that create refugees in the first place. We need our government to commit to going net-zero now, and the entire world needs to be net-zero this decade. We simply can no longer ignore the harm we are causing to our fellow human beings with our inaction.
If you would like to donate to help provide Syrian refugees with medical treatment, food and training, please go to https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/erin-remblance
Written by Erin Remblance, Sydney mum-of-three and new climate activist
All images by Erin Remblance