The humanitarian situation in Syria has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks. In response, the Disasters Emergency Committee launched its Syria Appeal on Thursday. At the time of writing the Appeal had reached £3.4 million.
The Appeal aims to raise funds to provide humanitarian aid to 5 million people. Syria is now in its third year of uprising against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, and the violence has left 70,000 dead – many of them children. It’s escalated to new levels recently, with massive and indiscriminate attacks on cities and the deliberate targeting of civilians. People’s homes are without water and electricity, and there is no medical care. 3 million people have fled their homes, and 1 million of those have left the country for refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. It is estimated that currently up to 8,000 people a day are fleeing Syria.
Four UK charities – the British Red Cross, Islamic Relief, Oxfam and Save the Children are working – at great risk to themselves – inside Syria and its neighbouring countries to provide food, clean water, emergency shelter and medical help.
Jordan and Lebanon are struggling to cope with the influx of refugees, and Islamic Relief reports that families in camps are having to sleep in shifts because there aren’t enough tents to accommodate them all at night. Amongst them, there are hundreds of thousands of children who need food, blankets, medicines, safe drinking water and psychological support. Traumatised from the violence they have witnessed, they also need to feel safe, and to live, play and learn in as normal a way as possible. See this video from Save the Children:
The crisis has been compounded by the lack of help. The ongoing conflict, and the absence of humanitarian corridors means that international agencies cannot access those affected. A recent blog post by Samina Haq, Islamic Relief’s Head of Programmes, about her recent visit to Syria, outlines some of the difficulties. She writes: “I’ve visited many camps of this kind but what struck me the most about Syria was the lack of any international presence and limited camp management… We were confronted with total chaos and immense human suffering.” Read the full post here.
Lack of funds is also a problem. The UN has called the international community’s slowness in committing financial aid for Syria the worst funding crisis in recent memory. Its appeal for $1.5bn has raised barely one fifth of that amount.
Please help.
£25 could help provide life-saving drugs to children at risk of dying from easily treated diseases.
£50 could provide a family with food for 2 weeks, including rice, dried beans and vegetable oil.
£100 could provide emergency shelter, a mattress and blankets for one person, protecting them from the elements.
You can donate to the DEC here.