Dans le Huffington Post Canada : Syrian Refugees Experience 'The Psychological Warfare' Of Winter Cold

In my third year of university, the only apartment I could afford had ice on the inside walls. The winter temperature in Kingston, Ontario, regularly plunged to -20 C. The bedroom had no insulation. 
Each night, I slept in sweats, heavy socks, a hat and mitts. Even with a space heater, and winter-weight sleeping bag under my quilt, I still shivered. In the mornings, I reached up to feel how much ice had formed above my bed during the night. I counted the days until March, when my room-mate and I could give notice.

The psychological warfare of cold 

Like those who survived the lengthy power outage in Toronto a year ago December, many Canadians have experienced living conditions too cold to be believed. It's not the same as winter camping, when you come prepared and go home on Sunday. Having the elements invade your home is quite a different thing. 

Millions of Syrian families are experiencing that kind of cold right now. It may come as a surprise to many Canadians that places like Lebanon and Turkey actually get extremely cold in the winter months, making life even more miserable for people who have fled conflict to live in refugee camps.

It's something World Vision photographer Ralph Baydoun experienced this week, when he chose to camp out in an informal Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, to get a sense of what the families there experience all winter long. A snowstorm was expected. Ralph documented the refugees' preparations, their survival tactics over a 24-hour period -- and his own sense of fear and dread.

"It was a psychological war that I was fighting," Ralph recorded. "The wind was growing stronger and the tent was shaking all around me. I tried to squeeze my head and neck into my sleeping bag, because they were freezing."

No mercy for the vulnerable 

With his cameras, Ralph documented the refugees' storm preparations, including bracing their tents to withstand the expected 40 cm of snow. He met two of the children who would spend the coming hours climbing up on the roofs of the tents, cleaning away the snow throughout the night.

"I met Mhammad and Jomaa, both nine years old. They were on the roofs of two tents, clearing away the falling snow. They told me that they work all night cleaning snow off the tents, paid by the other refugees. They earn around 50 cents each."

​Pour lire l'article en entier : ​http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/debbie-wolfe/syrian-refugees-winter_b_9118266.html?ncid=fcbklnkcahpmg00000001