Ration Challenge 2023
Sunday 18 – Saturday 24 June
Sign up - take the Ration Challenge
***Raise Money. Eat Rations. Change Lives***
Farah's story
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| (Above) Farah was struggling to make ends meet until she had the idea to make and sell cheese. Now she is able to use the extra income she earns to buy her daughters things they couldn’t afford before. Karen McGrath/Act for Peace | |
This is Farah. Farah is a strong, Syrian woman who lived in the countryside outside of Hamah, Syria. A young widow, she lived with her in-laws, and she spent her day at home, raising her children, looking after their goats and sheep, making cheese and butter, and harvesting olives from their olive trees to turn into olive oil.
When war ravaged her country in 2012, Farah's life changed dramatically. In 2013 the war arrived on her doorstep.
Farah feared for her life and her children's safety, but as the mother of 3 young girls it was the story of soldiers violating young girls that forced her decision to flee.
They travelled from village to village, often sleeping in the streets without shelter. Eventually, they gave what little money they had to smugglers to take them to Jordan. The journey took eight days with no food, no water, and no coats. Sick, hungry, and exhausted, they walked about 3 kilometres on foot to evade radar traps and eventually reached a point where they could travel by car through the desert. Eventually they arrived in Zaatari camp, and from there, they made their way to Talbieh Camp on the outskirts of Amman in Jordan.
For the next year and a half, Farah and her family lived in a tent with no electricity, water, or gas. They had no money and no means of earning an income.
Eventually the children found work on a farm, along with many of the others in the camp. While they should have been at school, playing with friends and getting an education, the small daily pay was desperately needed by the family to survive. Eventually Farah's son found a job, which paid him a small monthly salary and the family were able to move into a modest apartment.
But life was still so hard for the family. Farah’s oldest daughter was married at just 15 years old, so that she would have a man to take care of her and be responsible for her.
Her other daughters would have experienced the same outcome, had they not been introduced to Act for Peace's local partner in Jordan, the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR).
DSPR was able to provide Farah and her family with food parcels, a small gesture but one that took so much worry from the family. They were able to go from eating one meal a day to two and use the small income they had on other things.
Farah’s daughters were able to start back to school, and she was able to buy milk, which she used to make cheese. She started to sell her cheese to neighbours and friends, and the additional income meant that she could start to buy other essentials for her family.
What is so good about a Food Parcel?
While a food parcel might not seem a lot, this simple gift changed Farah’s life. Not only did it provide food for her family, but it helped her to feel hopeful again, to find her strength and her independence and to start to reclaim her future.
Farah’s story offers an incredible reminder of the strength and resilience of refugees.
For so many mothers like Farah, they watch as their daughters are married too young, with no education and no independence. Their adult lives — while safe — are often full of sadness.
For every one of the refugees I have met, they have the potential to create a better life for themselves, but limited means to do it. For so many, life is a struggle day in, day out.
The Ration Challenge is one powerful way to help change the lives of refugees just like Farah today.
For one week, you’ll eat the same contents of one ration pack, just like the one Farah received, raise money and change lives. The money you raise will bring food, healthcare and life-changing support to the people who need it most. And by sharing your Ration Challenge experience with those around you, you'll also be creating real change in your community by raising awareness for this important issue at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Take the Ration Challenge
Register: Sign up here to be among the first to sign up for this year’s challenge.
When you take the Ration Challenge 2023, you can do something that really makes a difference.
How does it work?
For one week in June, you’ll eat the same rations as a Syrian refugee – just a small amount of rice, lentils, flour, chickpeas, beans, fish and oil – and get sponsored to do it.
The money you raise will support people forcibly displaced with emergency food, healthcare and life-changing support. You’ll be helping support Syrian refugees, living in Jordan, many of whom fled their homes when the war broke out in Syria. And you’ll also be supporting other communities around the world who have been impacted by conflict or disaster.
And by sharing your Ration Challenge experience with those around you, you'll be creating real change in your community by raising awareness for this important issue at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Are you up for the challenge this year?
If you want to learn more, check out actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au for all the information on the Ration Challenge.
*** See the difference you can make. ***
