Aid worker from Surrey tells of humanitarian efforts in Syria
World Humanitarian Day aims to "honour those who step into crises to help others".Speaking to BBC Surrey, Ms Gobbi said: "Day to day now the situation is definitely hopeful. If anyone can rebuild it's the Syrians. "But there's a long way to go, more than half the population is food insecure meaning they don't know where their next meal is coming from."
In December, rebels led by the Syrian Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed Damascus, where Ms Gobbi is based, toppling the Assad regime which had ruled the country for 54 years.Since then, Western countries have sought to reset relations with the country.
Ms Gobbi said her life in Syria was "relatively normal". "I go running in the evenings and we visit restaurants in the old city [Damascus], it's a beautiful city and a beautiful country but it's a world away from Walton-on-Thames," she said.One of the programmes Ms Gobbi works on provides a subsidised bread programme for vulnerable Syrians using wheat flour that comes from Ukraine. "In terms of humanitarian assistance, it is absolutely coming. It's the investment in infrastructure and real rebuilding of the economy that we're waiting for," she said.Asked what her future in the country would be, Ms Gobbi said she would be "happy to stay as long as there is a job for her to do".
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