Tuesday 12 February 2013
The latest on Syria
An estimated five million Syrian people have fled their homes, over half a million are children. Most are living in cold, damp and cramped conditions across Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey in flimsy makeshift shelters with no heating, electricity or hot water. They left their homes with little or no belongings. Many are injured from continuous bombing and shelling. They have no regular food and no income. Men, women and children are suffering through no fault of their own. They are in desperate need of emergency shelter and other lifesaving supplies. ShelterBox is responding.
What started out as a peaceful protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the southern Province of Deraa in March 2011 has degenerated into a regional interethnic civil war. The growing violence, sectarian tensions and economic hardship are forcing more and more Syrian families from their homes.
What ShelterBox is doing
In Syria we brought winter kits including blankets, groundsheets, water carriers, stoves, jerry cans, hats, gloves and scarfs to all 710 families living at Al-Salameh camp in December 2012, enabling them to keep warm and safe.
In Iraq we delivered winterised ShelterBox disaster relief tents with other aid designed for cold conditions in November 2012, bringing shelter and warmth to families living at Domiz refugee camp.
We are the first aid agency to distribute tents to Syrian refugees in Lebanon with the permission of the Lebanese Government. ShelterBox Response Teams (SRTs) are there working with multiple implementing partners across various hubs to deliver much needed emergency shelter to cold vulnerable families in need.
In Jordan we are working with the border guards who are distributing winterised ShelterBoxes along the Syrian border providing a rest area for newly arriving Syrian refugee families.
'It's my fourteenth ShelterBox deployment and I have never seen so many people forced to live in such horrific conditions. I have been to Africa, Asia and South America and haven't come across such hardships. I don't know how families are surviving in this extremely cold weather under bits of plastic. It's wet and icy. Many children are ill with respiratory problems from the damp. They are in desperate need of shelter and warmth.' SRT member Phil Duloy (UK), Beirut, Lebanon.
Donate
You can help with our responses around the world. We ask you to donate, no matter how small, to help us help those families in need.
