Clothes for the refugees
While we were there, we visited some of the people we were trying to help. One group of 45 families lived in an abandoned hotel - a Russian project halted mid-construction when Azerbaijan gained its independence from Russia. It was a concrete structure with holes where the windows, stair wells and lift shafts would have been. The temperature there ranges from -15°C in the winter to over 40°C in the summer. Some of the windows and doors had been blocked by cardboard, plywood and corrugated iron. There was one standpipe outside, put there by UNICEF, where the families washed themselves, their clothes, their cooking utensils and their food. Each family had two or three children.
We handed out clothing. This was perhaps the most powerful moment for us all. Men and women cried together and many couldn't stay long in the room where we worked.
But you know what? I have never seen such happy children. Given the conditions they were in, it was extraordinary. I particularly remember playing football with them, taking their photos (that they ALL wanted to be in), and watching them play with bits of wire with wheels attached to the bottom. Sobering.
And when I came home, I saw a teenager on TV complaining about the conditions in her hostel - it didn't have 'this' and they needed 'that'. I thought, a little trip to Azerbaijan would soon stop that whining. But then, it's not her fault - she doesn't know how lucky she is.