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Fatima is three and all she’s ever known is war. Bombs forced her family to flee their home in Idlib, Syria.

Syria Crisis

War has been raging for seven years
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On Saturday April 7, we received reports from our humanitarian partners in the remaining opposition-held area of eastern Ghouta, Douma, of what appears to be another deadly chemical attack.

We can't confirm what weapons were used, but devastating pictures have emerged of families, lifeless in each other’s arms, and children pale and choking in makeshift hospitals.

This is not the first such attack to hit eastern Ghouta – children here  have been subjected to bombing, chemical weapons attacks and the slow grind of siege and hunger for more than five years. 

Since the beginning of March, over 150,000 people are reported to have left areas of eastern Ghouta, however they are far from being safe from danger.

In northwest Syria, where thousands of families fleeing eastern Ghouta have travelled, our partners are ensuring children have access to enough food through food and cash supplies. We’re also distributing “new arrival” kits to ensure families have access to basic items such as tarpaulins and cash for fuel.

There’s a growing need humanitarian relief for those who have fled eastern Ghouta; children and families are arriving in desperate need of food, shelter and healthcare. 

We’re working across the country providing crucial support to those who have been forced from their homes and our other programmes continue to deliver children and families with health, nutrition education and livelihood support.

Please make a donation to our Syria Appeal.

The war in Syria has been raging for seven years now, and the humanitarian situation is dire.

13.1 million civilians are in need of humanitarian assistance, less than half of all hospitals are fully functioning and 1.75 million children are out of school.

2.8 million children living in Syria right now have lost or been forced from their homes.

We and our partners are working to protect children whose lives have been uprooted and torn apart by the conflict. Since the conflict started, we’ve reached over 3.1 million people across Syria and its neighbouring countries.

With your support we'll be able to reach even more who remain in desperate need.

Our work with Syrian children

We're in Syria and its neighbouring countries, providing support to children and families in war zones and to those who've been able to escape to safety across borders.

In northwest Syria, we’re operating from four primary healthcare facilities and one maternity hospital, providing maternal and reproductive healthcare.

An average of 20,000 people, mostly children and women, receive health services at these facilities every month.

We target locals in communities who are less able to access these clinics and make sure they're needs are met. Through household visits and our referral services, we provide health and family planning support and run nutrition and hygiene awareness sessions.

Nadia, one, is screened for malnutrition by a Save the Children health officer in a tented refugee settlement near the Syrian border. She and the family all live in a small dark tent with very few basic necessities and we've supported them to help buy food, water and medicine. We also monitor the camp for signs of malnutrition and conduct regular health ‘outreach’ visits.

Nadia, one, is screened for malnutrition by a Save the Children health officer in a tented refugee settlement near the Syrian border. She and the family all live in a small dark tent with very few basic necessities and we've supported them to help buy food, water and medicine. We also monitor the camp for signs of malnutrition and conduct regular health ‘outreach’ visits.

Nutrition interventions are integrated into our healthcare response.

Through the 7 nutrition centres we have in Syria, we screen and refer children for malnutrition, providing infant feeding assessments and offering counselling and guidance for caregivers on the importance of breastfeeding and feeding young children.

We’re also working with partners to deliver a mass vaccination project aimed at restoring routine immunisation services to children under 5 to ensure they steer clear of preventable diseases.

 

Children face being killed, maimed and recruited to fight, as well as besiegement and denial of humanitarian access.

Children are at more risk in war and conflict zones now than at any time in the last 20 years.

Child Protection is at the heart of our response to the Syria conflict.

Our "Child Friendly Spaces" not only provide children with a safe place to play, but also offer vital psychosocial support to help them cope with the trauma of war.

Syrian children play football in a "child friendly space" in one of the camps for displaced people in northwest Syria, close to the Turkish border.

Syrian children play football in a "child friendly space" by one a camp for displaced people in northwest Syria, close to the Turkish border.

Theses spaces are designed for children.

We provide lessons on music, drawing, sport and dance to encourage children to express themselves during their recovery and allow them to have fun and just be children again.

Beyond these stationary Child Friendly Spaces, we also have four mobile teams. This means we're able to bring this support to children in hard-to-reach areas.

 

Food is now scarce and prohibitively expensive, with many essential items now costing nearly 800 per cent more than in government-controlled areas just a few kilometres away.

Most families are trying to survive on just one meal a day, and people are burning plastic furniture as they have run out of fuel.

We’re addressing food insecurity issues through the distribution of emergency food rations and fresh food vouchers.

Save the Children’s partners, Syria Relief, Shafak and Violet are providing shelter and food to children and their families.

Save the Children’s partners, Syria Relief, Shafak and Violet are providing shelter and food to children and their families.

We’ve provided livestock for vulnerable displaced families to help recover food production and agricultural activities.

We’re also delivering cash grants to families to offer them a chance of recovering their household income and address the longer-term needs of rebuilding lives.

However, the scale of need is far beyond current resources and funding is urgently needed to provide thousands more families with the food they need.

 

With the growing number of people displaced in eastern Ghouta and from the city of Raqqa into the northeast of Syria, people are in desperate need of essential relief items after fleeing their homes.

We’re distributing core relief items such as hygiene kits, cooking utensils and sleeping materials.

We’re also distributing tarpaulin, fuel for heating purposes, and blankets to families affected by bad weather.

In the winter months, 1,000 blankets were distributed to children and their families to shelter against the harsh weather.

 

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