Syrian Refugee Crisis: CARE at the front lines

CARE focuses on the distribution of relief supplies such as food baskets, hygiene and baby kits, dignity kits for the elderly, and kitchen sets. During the harsh winter, our partners have supported families with mattresses, blankets, floor covering, and children’s clothing.  CARE’s partners also work with health clinics, increasing access to health care for Syrian communities affected by the conflict. Additionally, women receive reproductive health support. CARE is also supporting the renovation of two water treatment plants. 

In addition to incredible humanitarian needs, in such a protracted conflict there is also an urgent need to rebuild livelihoods, encourage social cohesion and resilience to cope with longer term crisis.  With our partners,

Inside Syria

• More than 13.5 million Syrians, (more than half of the pre-war population), including six million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, inside Syria.
• At least 6.6 million people remain internally displaced.
• Almost 70 per cent lack access to adequate drinking water and continuing water cuts.
• One in three people are unable to meet their basic food needs, with at 8.7 million people in need of food security-related assistance.
• Over 11 million people require health assistance.
• Syria’s development has regressed by almost four decades.
• School attendance has dropped 50 percent, and 5.7 children need education support.
• An estimated 86,000 children under five years suffer from acute malnutrition, another 3.2 million children under five and pregnant and lactating women are at risk.
• Four out of five Syrians live in poverty
• Since the onset of the crisis the average life expectancy has fallen by 20 years.
• The Syrian economy has contracted by an estimated 40 percent since 2011, leading to many Syrians losing their livelihoods.
• Nearly one in three Syrian households is now in debt, due mainly to food costs.
• Three in five locations are affected by child labor.
• 2.4 million people lack adequate shelter.
• An estimated 300,000 women are pregnant and need targeted support.
• In 2015, there were over 100 attacks on medical facilities

Aleppo:

• During the siege of east Aleppo, 300,000 people were trapped (and remain so)  – with parties to the conflict attacking hospitals, bakeries, and water infrastructure. While the siege was broken on Saturday, 6 August, communities remain under threat with ongoing bombing of routes into east Aleppo.  Aid agencies have not been able to access the most impacted areas of the city.

CARE welcomes a desperately needed pause in the fighting as an important step to allow humanitarian assistance to be delivered to those in need in Aleppo, but at a minimum, the UN proposed 48-hr ceasefire is urgently needed to allow for humanitarian aid to reach civilians in need of assistance.  A few hours (the Russian proposal, 1000-1300) is not enough.  We call on Russia, Syria and armed apposition actors to abide by previous Security Council resolutions, (most recently UNSC 2258, passed on December 22, 2015),

 CARE’s first priority inside Syria is to reach those most impacted by the war, and specifically affected by this siege.  In Aleppo, 300,000 people have been held hostage by the conflict.  But they are not alone, there are at least 5.5 million people in hard-to-reach areas in Syria, including the hundreds of thousands of people in at least 18 besieged locations.  During the recent siege, CARE supported a community kitchen in setting up contingency food stocks and cooking gas.  CARE continues to work through partners, so far reaching 3,000 families on the outskirts of eastern Aleppo, with emergency aid.  In other areas under siege in Syria, we are delivering food parcels, supporting agricultural production for self-reliance, and child protection programming. 

 CARE is working to help Syrians meet their most urgent needs and protect their dignity. We are on the ground in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Syria, collaborating with partners and helping people displaced by the conflict and the communities hosting them. With your continuous gifts, we have been able to do this amazing work.