Feature: Syrian refugee families in Turkey get help from Chinese friends

As snow falls on central Anatolian region, temperature goes below zero degree centigrade after sunset, and another winter comes to the Syrian refugee families who live in outskirts of Turkish capital Ankara. They got help to make a living not only from Turkish government and citizens, but also from some Chinese friends.

Mervan Hindi, a 63-year-old man from the war-torn northern Syrian city of Aleppo, rent an old apartment on a mountain side region in Mamak district of Ankara, living with his 57-year-old wife Emine Yusuf and two grandsons, five-year-old Mervan and 6-year-old Abdullahahman who lost their parents when fleeing from Syrian to Turkey.

Hindi became hemiplegic after stroke, so he barely moves at home, just sitting on a blanket in his home. His wife Emine has to take care of all the house work and the two little boys.

"Their family has two boys and an old man who cannot move freely and needs medical care. They don't have any young labor in the family. With a hemiplegic family member, it means 10 points in our aid evaluation system, and each elder and child counts two points," Wu Zhen, the person in charge of a group named "Aiding Refugees Activity Documentary," a Wechat (a popular chat app from Chinese company Tecent) Group of 114 people, mostly Chinese living in Turkey, told Xinhua.

As there is no young labor, we will double their scores, so this family scores 32 and it is No.1 on the list of the most venerable refugee families. One score means 10 Turkish liras per month," Wu added while handing over 320 Turkish liras (96 U.S. dollars) to Emine.

Emine put the money in her pocket while keeping saying "shukran" ("thank you" in Arabic) to Wu, who can barely speak Turkish or Arabic.

That is the reason why Wu invited some volunteers to help him doing the work including investigation and enrollment of refugee families' information, interpretation while giving aid money to refugee families and other work like playing with children in refugee families.

Jihad Daana, a Palestinian studying in Turkey, is one of the volunteers Wu invited.

Jihad was playing clapping game with young Mervan, while Emine signed her signature on Wu's book to record where the donation money from the group goes.

"I speak Arabic and I'd love to help those in need, so when Wu asked me if I can come to help, I accepted without hesitation," Jihad told Xinhua.

The Hindi family from Aleppo is one of the six Syrian refugee families that Wu and his group helped beginning from February this year. The money is not that much but it can actually cover some expenses of the families who do not have enough income except for donations and aids from Turkish government and citizens.

"When we started our project, we selected eight Syrian families to help and now the conditions of two are getting better, so we decided to stop giving them support to give more money to those in need," Wu told Xinhua, while showing his printed refugee families lists.

Born in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, the 41-year-old single man is a travel guide.

"The hospitality of Turkish people and their generosity to Syrian refugees deeply moved me and I decide to settle down in Mamak district to help refugees living not far from me. One man's power is limited, but a group of warm-hearted Chinese can do some things to make their life easier," Wu said.

"Most of our group members are Chinese people who are making great efforts to earn a better life in Turkey. We may not be very rich, but we are willing to do what we can to help people in need," Wu added. Endit