Please help people inside Syria.
Click the button below to donate to our Syria in Crisis Appeal now.
Donations will support the work of our ACT Alliance partner, The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).
Ahlam, a Syrian refugee, home schools her children in Madaba, Jordan. After bombing destroyed their home in Daraa, Syria, she fled with her family. Middle East Council of Churches provides a variety of services, including medical care and distribution of schooling materials. Photo: Paul Jeffrey, ACT Alliance
* January 2020 update *
The Syrian crisis is now in its tenth year. The UN has declared it a level three humanitarian emergency.
The ACT Alliance is reporting that the Syrian crisis is still the largest refugee crisis in the world. The past and present hostilities compounded with the continued massive displacement of populations, remain the main drivers of humanitarian needs.
The scale, severity, and complexity of needs across Syria remain overwhelming. Of the estimated 11.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 5 million are experiencing acute needs, 6.2 million are internally displaced, and many have been displaced multiple times. Children and youth comprise more than half of the displaced, as well as half of those in need of critical humanitarian assistance.
Jordan hosts 671,074 registered Syrian refugees. Lebanon hosts 1.5 million Syrian refugees along with 31,502 Palestine Refugees from Syria, and a pre-existing population of more than 175,000 Palestine Refugees.
Middle East Council of Churches supports this medical clinic in a refugee camp in Madaba, Jordan, where refugees are able to access medication. The number of people in this refugee camp has grown over the last few years as refugees arrive from Syria. Photo: Paul Jeffrey, ACT Alliance
The MECC is one of the few organisations working inside Syria to bring urgent aid to vulnerable people in some of the most volatile areas.
Over half of the Syrian population of 22 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, with many of these people displaced more than once.
More people are having to flee the conflict each day. Due to the ongoing civil war, most agencies are unable to reach these people, and instead are assisting refugees outside Syria.
The MECC is one of the very few relief agencies working inside Syria to help some of the millions of people suffering within their own war-torn country. This work is dangerous and difficult, yet they continue each day to provide relief.
The MECC’s work includes the distribution of hygiene kits, winter clothing and shoes in addition to school bags and stationery. Materials are distributed in a way that respects all precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The situation in Syria is constantly changing, as are the numbers of people affected.
There remains a massive need for the provision of health, water, sanitation, food, education, and psycho-social support both within and outside of Syria for the Syrian refugees.
Sources: Haaretz, Aljazeera; Reuters; United Nations children’s agency UNICEF; UN’s World Food Programme; UN refugee agency UNHCR; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor.
For more detailed information on the situation in Syria, read this update from the global ACT Alliance.
This article from February 2020 has the latest from the conflict in Idlib, in the north-west of the country.
To donate to our Syria in Crisis Appeal, click on the ‘Please Donate’ button below (choose ‘Syria in Crisis Appeal’ from the drop-down menu).