Syria

The UN has described the war in Syria as the ‘biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time‘. With millions of people driven from their homes, seeking refuge in other countries or displaced within Syria, families have limited access to food, water and healthcare.

As a high proportion of those displaced are children and with the breakdown of critical services including educational and healthcare facilities, for families across Syria the future remains uncertain.

For people across Syria, life is incredibly challenging:

• A staggering 11.7 million people inside Syria are in need of humanitarian aid (IRW, 2019)
• Over half of Syria’s public health care facilities have been destroyed or forced to close (WHO, 2018)
• Over 6 million Syrians are internally displaced inside Syria (UNHCR, 2018)
• 7 million Syrians are registered as refugees across the MENA region (UNHCR, 2019)

Islamic Relief in Syria

Across Syria, the situation is desperate and requires a critical, ongoing response. In line with the vision of Islamic Relief’s regional strategy, we are delivering wide-ranging programmes in various areas such as health, food, education, non-food items (NFIs), and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Islamic Relief team has been working with local partners to reach the most affected people in hard-to-reach areas. We have supported paediatric centres across Northern Syria, providing essential medicine and equipment and also strengthened the capacity of our teams and local organisations so they are better able to respond to emergency situations in Syria and neighbouring countries.

In addition to supporting families inside Syria, we have also been providing aid to millions of displaced Syrian families in neighbouring countries including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Now eight years after the initial outbreak of conflict, and with families returning back to their homes, we’re working to help families recover and face the future in the safest, most sustainable way possible.