(Reporting by Sarah Abdul Hai; Translation by Dani Murad)
Local sources informed Zaman Alwasl that 325 students left the city of Jaramana, early Friday heading to their hometowns in Eastern Ghouta, after they completed high school exams in all of its branches, in addition to 360 students who finished secondary school exams a few days ago.
The city of Jaramana welcomed its guests “the students”, in addition to a number of parents and administrators from the schools of Eastern Ghouta, in an initiative to let students take their exams under a settlement between FSA and the regime, 25 days before the presidential election.
Jaramana, is a city in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate in the Ghouta plain. Its location, 10 kilometers southeast of the Syrian capital, makes it a bustling town in the greater Damascus metropolitan area, with a mostly Christian and Druze population.
The arrivals to “Zahi Sameen” school, stayed there for nearly a month, and upon arrival to the city of Jaramanah, a supervising committee was formed headed by Tamer Qassam, Head of City Council, Professor Nazeeh Sharaf Al Deen, director of the shelter center, and Mr. Maher Faraj Head of the educational complex.
And then the committee held an immediate meeting in the reception area, to put a number of actions and develop an integrated plan that provide all students with their requirements, and the Red Crescent in cooperation with the local community and civil committees in Jaramana undertook to provide all students’ supplies and daily needs of food, drink, clothing, medicine and means of comfort.
And according to one of the administrators,“ the students were welcomed with warm hospitality from the entire concerned entities and their academic and health needs were addressed with so much care ,as they were given daily meals in addition to a follow-up to their health by the health center in Jaramana.
The supervisor confirmed that no intractable health cases were recorded among students, but there were many diarrhea cases as a result to the differences in the quality of food between besieged Ghutta and Jaramana.
“Contributing in students’ welfare was not limited to school administrators and the Red Crescent, who did everything possible to help them, because every day, we met a new face from the donor families who provided students with meals, sweets, fruit, in addition to clothes and shoes with love and warm-heartedness, and we were not surprise by the care and interest that Jaramana’s people have shown towards our children, since we have a common history of good neighborly relations and mutual affection" He added.
Om Ahmed, a supervisor and mother to one of the student says: nothing bothered the students or disturbed their stay, except for one incident that took place a few days before the presidential election, when a group of regime’ forces and national defense militia stormed into the school, heavily armed and carrying a sign of 4 meters width that says “the Syrian army is providing Ghutta’s students with a meal”.
And these forces were accompanied by four pro-regime television cameras to film the students as they have lunch, and within moments, the school was filled with pictures of head of the regime Bashar al-Assad, and even students’ rooms were filled with regime’s photos and flags.
Therefore, students had no choice but to stay in their rooms, refusing to have lunch, nor be part of this farce, and some of them even torn pictures of Bashar al-Assad that were hanged in their classes as a reaction to what is happening, and after several negotiations between students and their supervisors,no more than 40 students were convinced to go down and have lunch.
And once the students came, members of the Syrian army started shouting "Allah m7ayi eljaysh Al souri" , embarrassing the students who were forced to cheer with them in front of the cameras, and the humiliating videos were broadcasted the same day on pro-regime TVs “ Sama, and Al Mayadeen”.
Furthermore, a volunteer in the Red Crescent confirmed what Om Ahmed had said, and expressed his resentment of regime’s behavior saying:” all the volunteers in the Red Crescent who were in the school that day took off their uniforms, because we refuse to be affiliated with any party, we are an independent organization and it’s not right to have our pictures displayed on TVs for, our own safety.
in addition to that, Abu Ghiath, one of the supervisors in the school of “ Zahi Sameen” expressed to Zaman Al Wasl his gratitude and thanks to all people who worked and participated day and night for the sake of students‘comfort and welfare, saying:“it was a busy month of work and mutual affection between the supervisors and volunteers from Jaramana’s people."
Abu Ghiath especially thanked the Red Crescent, which took the opportunity of students’ comeback to Ghutta, to provide them with baskets of canned food, as well as mattresses and blankets that have been distributed during their stay in school,
Even though the towns of Eastern Gouta , a semi-circle of rural towns outside Damascus, have been under strict siege for more than a year, but its students have broken this siege and came back to with more than 800 food baskets.
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