Myleene Klass is moved to tears as she meets the young refugees robbed of their childhood by the war in Syria
Myleene Klass has been visiting a refugee camp in Jordan, where thousands of Syrian refugees now live, having fled war and utter destruction in their home country
LISTENING to the harrowing testimony of teenage Syrian refugee Leila, Myleene Klass choked back emotion as she thought of her eldest daughter Ava.
Mum-of-two Myleene was in a refugee camp on the Syrian border, where she has spent the week to learn more about what's going on in the war torn country.
One of the most heartbreaking stories came from 15-year-old Leila, who told how her father used to bury her under sofa cushions as war planes circled overhead.
Myleene, 39, recalled: “This little girl saw one of her best friends killed in an airstrike. Leila used to run screaming and her days were filled with fear.
“She left Syria when she was 10, the same age as my daughter - and Leila has had to endure suffering no child should have to deal with.
“When you break it down, there is nothing that separates somebody who is a refugee from yourself. It’s sheer geography. If there was an air strike over your head, you would move hell and high water to get your family out.”
Teaching her girls about the world
Before she flew out on the visit with , Myleene sat her daughters Ava, 10, and Hero, six, to discuss the horrors of Syria.
Her girls even made the bags of sweets Myleene gave out to refugee children who have fled to Jordan.
She said: “I talked to my children about everything that’s going on in Syria.
“I’ve sent them photos of where I am. The girls put together the bags of sweets and stickers I brought out with me.
“I want my girls to know about the world. I try to do it in an age-appropriate manner but at the same time, I think it’s really important they have an understanding.
“It’s nice to be able to explain to them what’s really going on, that some children don’t get to live in the house they want to live in or the country or the family. It’s important they have some idea.
“Some people think ‘keep children children for as long as you can’, but what does that mean? To shield them from the reality of what’s going on is actually doing them a massive disservice.
“You can feed it to them in a way that’s manageable.”
Standing by charity despite scandals
Myleene has stuck by charity Save The Children after two former bosses were accused separately of bullying and sexual harassment.
The defiant TV presenter said: “I feel some people have lost faith in aid agencies and NGOs at the moment, either because they can’t see it first-hand or they only hear the horror stories of what the few are doing.
“Ultimately, let’s remember to keep the spotlight on the incredible work that’s going on - the 80,000 loaves Save The Children distribute in the camp every day, the children who have a school to go to, the mums that have got a support group to speak to, the people learning skills that will help them back into employment.”
The sheer scale of suffering at the Za’atari refugee camp left Myleene awe-struck.
It’s the world’s second-largest refugee camp with 80,000 residents, and has become the fourth largest city in Jordan.
The makeshift place costs around £320,000 a day to run amid the blast-furnace heat. Aid workers hand out 500,000 pieces of bread and 4.2million litres of water every day.
Some 13 children are born here every day and there are 3,000 shops — many on the dusty main drag, jokingly called the Champs-Elysées.
Classical pianist Myleene said: “The size is unbelievable. It’s like being inside a prison, you see a lot of corrugated iron and cement structures.
“You come straight out of the desert, through the barbed wire, past all of these crudely erected homes of corrugated iron and plastic sheeting and whatever else they can find and you walk into a building that could be any other nursery in any part of the world, with drawings on the walls and toys strewn across the floor.”
The Little Hands early learning centre was set up by funding from Save The Children's Syria Crisis Appeal. It provides pre-school children with the emotional support they need to continue into education.
The Little Hands early learning centre provides a sanctuary for the children who have lost it all“They weren’t quite running around like boisterous children of their age," she said.
"These children have been born into war and it’s difficult to fathom the things they’ve seen and experienced. They’re hardly living, they’re surviving.”
Broken families
Myleene spoke to a couple, Faisal and Amina, who found their way to the camp from Eastern Ghouta - which is currently experiencing brutal drone strikes.
She said: “Faisal's a farmer and he had to watch his land get blown to pieces. His wife Amina told him ‘we have to go because I’m going to wake up and my husband will be dead’.
“When they were making the escape, she kept fainting with fear. They brought their two children across but Faisal had to leave his mother behind and mother-in-law, their entire family.
“The only time they hear from them is when somebody sends a message to say that someone else has died. He said he can’t even go and pay his respects to the bodies, he said people are just vanishing."
As the children played in the Little Hands centre, their mothers huddled together in scenes similar to the gates of any British school.
Myleene said: “These women are so strong but they’re not made of stone and they’ve been through some horrific experiences.
“Most mums know how you sometimes have to bury your emotion to stay strong for your children - but obviously there’s huge sadness bubbling beneath.
“You try and hold so much back from your own children, because ultimately children take their strength from you and if they see you in a tailspin, they don’t know where they stand.
“So to see such strong, proud women break – it broke my heart.
"Ultimately, they don’t want to be there. They don’t want handouts. They don’t want to be there. They’re living in a desert, it looks like a prison, but everyone’s making the best of it they can.”
She added: “I spoke to one mum, Muna, who had two children living on the other side of the border. She’s in the camp with one child and her husband and she cannot get her other two children through.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking. It’s stalemate. Nobody can move, nobody can pass.
“As a mother I can’t imagine the helplessness of knowing your children are in danger and being powerless to do anything.
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As Myleene spoke to the gaggle of mothers, she watched the wide-eyed children at play on the floor.
She said: “The children were building little towns out of Lego.
"The irony hit me and I just thought ‘If only their own parents could rebuild their own towns and cities.’"
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