The Snowman!

Snow  kept on falling. The unusually cold weather had been sweeping across the region for several days and people in the towns were struggling to cope. For those in the camps it was yet one more horror to be borne. Children with pinched faces and unkempt hair stood around in groups staring un-seeing, their eyes and minds no longer able to absorb the sights and sounds around them. One small boy, wearing a thin, inadequate jacket, cotton trousers and plastic sandals scooped up a handful of snow and threw it half heartedly at a mound of snow against the wall of the shelter that counted as home. It had not been thrown towards anyone - they had all seen too much of that for real. The snowball sat on top of the mound making it look like a short fat snowman, and one of the boys gave a thin laugh but there was little jest.

Just then an Aid worker came along between the shelters asking if anyone had seen a toddler wandering around lost. She had been missing from a family in the next row since the night before. But there were too many people, too many children all struggling to fight the cold and the hunger in their own families to notice a little stray one.

The curtain that acted as a door to keep out the wind and snow was pulled aside and the small boy’s mother called out for him. She needed him to look after the baby whilst his brothers were sent to scavenge for something to burn on the fire, and she went off to queue for food before the light failed.  The snow had stopped at last. As he entered the shelter he looked up to see the plastic sheeting roof was sagging. In the light of a flickering lamp he saw that the pan on the simple stove was empty. He went back outside to fill it with snow using the snowball he had thrown on the ‘snowman’. As night fell the family ate the meagre ration they had received, huddled together for warmth and tried to fight off the nightmares, and sleep.

During the night the weather finally changed, the temperatures rose dramatically and the snow turned to rain. As they woke at dawn they saw that the roof had held.  The foul smelling plastic matting fuel on the fire was replaced with some real wood they had found the day before. Then the little boy was sent out to fill the pan with the melting snow. Going through the curtain he turned to the snowman and stopped. The snow had partially melted and protruding from the mound was a tiny hand.

In another country.

The rain was beating heavily against the window-pane as the couple sat in the warm kitchen eating their breakfast and reading the paper, with the radio on in the background:

- The heavy rain is set to continue for the next two days and more flood warnings have been issued by the Met Office.

- The refugee crisis in the Middle East continues and it is estimated that nearly two million people are now displaced. The large camps set up by the various aid agencies are said to be overwhelmed………..

‘It is a terrible mess,’ commented the man, replacing his mug on the table.

‘Surely, there must be something we can do,’ replied his wife in frustration and with a hint of anguish, ‘Oxfam, Save the Children - something!’