Baylor University – an academic institution to most and a second home to many; it is a community filled with encouragement of education and the pursuit of ambition. The BIC is a community within the Baylor family that provides integrative curriculum and opportunities to its students.
Among the 13,000 students on campus, there is a common pursuit: the future. As college students, from athletes to honors students, the future is always in view. Students want to win every football game, study hard for classes, ace exams, and build a résumé that will outshine competitors for future opportunities.
Although Baylor and the BIC have provided students with a safe haven to learn, explore, and grow, there is a world outside of this bubble that does not share the same parallel.
Today will mark four years since the onset of the civil war in Syria. Statistics provided by human rights organizations reveal that 2014 was the worst year by far, bringing the death toll to nearly 220,000. At least 7.6 million people, including 3.5 million children, have been displaced and are being forced into settlements with minimal access to services that support their basic needs.
Syria’s crisis has been especially hard on children. Helpless and wandering, there are over 5.6 million children in need of assistance and close to 2 million who have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Yet these nations are struggling to support the influx of people. Tortured and hungry, children are resorting to dangerous labor or are even married off early in order to support their families during this crisis. The numbers are real, and they aren’t going anywhere.
We often regard these statistics as current event issues that should be discussed in class or in daily news updates, but these statistics are more than just numbers – they represent real, suffering Syrian people.
Our constant pursuit of success is the norm for college students, but as college students we can also be a platform for change. As the young adults of our generation, we have the power to raise awareness in our communities for the social injustices in the world. With that being said, we must be the primary conduit of such awareness.
I recently attended the Honors Residential College Retreat, and Dr. Jonathan Tran, the faculty master, gave an address on this very concept. He said, “We are constantly pressing our time; we keep our focus on the next test and mastering the concepts we learn during lectures, that we forget there are lives outside of ours that don’t have the same opportunities.”
Although it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to study chapter after chapter of content, or to juggle extracurricular activities and a social life as well as our GPAs, at the same time there are not enough places for the children of Syria to seek refuge. There are not enough resources to support the needs of children, and there are not enough outlets to escape the horror that is the Syrian civil war.
The “Save the Children” foundation is a campaign that raises awareness and helps provide relief for the war on children, and more specifically the child refugee crisis. The war on child refugees in Syria is not coming to an end soon, but the way we choose to live our lives in recognition of this crisis can begin today. We can make the difference.
Kassie Hsu is a freshman BIC student majoring in neuroscience.
References:
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.B143/Official_USA_Site.htm
http://www.savethechildren.org/atf/cf/%7B9def2ebe-10ae-432c-9bd0-df91d2eba74a%7D/SYRIA_FACTSHEET.PDF
Nice focus on what is important and needs to be done in this situation.
I was truly inspired!! I can’t wait for the next article!