A year ago the world was outraged as news of an alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb on 21 August 2013 reached the public, and footage of dead and injured Syrians flooded the internet. The UN later confirmed everyone’s worst fears and verified that chemical weapons had been used. At least 500 people were reported to have been killed in the attack, with estimates reaching as high as 1,500 victims.

To US President Obama, this had crossed the line. The public and media outlets felt similarly, with media attention of the Syrian crisis reaching a record high.

Was this political, media and public interest sustained over the ensuing months? Unfortunately not.

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Mohamad drives with one hand, squinting at the afternoon sun as his phone rings for the fifth time in the past half an hour. The lanky 25-year-old Syrian shrugs the mobile to his ear with one shoulder, scribbling numbers on a Post-it as he repeats them out loud: "$1,000 to Tripoli; $200 to Hiba's family; $300 to Umm Hanan; $10,000 for the operation."

We're in eastern Lebanon, a 90-minute drive from Beirut, a one-hour drive from Damascus, and just five minutes from the Syrian border. Sun beats through the windshield as we thread through the Bekaa Valley, an area known for its poverty, high crime rates, sectarian tensions, and, since 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. I watch Mohamad count out $10,000 in cash.

"It's for an open-heart surgery," he tells me. "It took us three months to raise $14,500 for this kid. The operation is tomorrow. Alhamdulillah."

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