The Syria Crisis

IIHA Humanitarian News Brief

WFP OPERATIONS IN SYRIA

For over three years, the raging civil war in Syria has destroyed the lives of
millions of civilians. Current data estimates that over 140,000 people have lost their
lives to the conflict. There are nearly 3 million Syrian refugees who have fled to
neighboring countries and 6.5 million internally displaced persons who remain
within the country, putting the total number of Syrians forced to flee their homes
around 9 million, almost half of the population. According to the United Nations, by
the end of 2014, three quarters of the Syrian population are expected to need aid.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been working in Syria since
1964 bringing food assistance to the country. Currently, WFP is reaching nearly 4
million people per month in Syria with vital food assistance, and is helping hundreds
of thousands of refugees who have fled into neighboring countries. Recently, WFPs
Syrian Country Director, Matthew Hollingworth (IDHA 1), spoke with the BBCs
Jeremy Bowen in a video interview about the ongoing work of WFP in Syria as part
of a larger story on the suffering civilians in the city of Aleppo. Speaking of the
importance of WFPs work and mission, Hollingworth explains, for many of the
people you will have met who have been displaced two, three, four, five times over
the last three years of war, [food] is the mainstay of everything that they can give to
their families. Without this there is no question that we would start to see really
serious cases of malnutrition. For more information, read the IIHA Humanitarian
News Brief.
In March 2011, Syrian demonstrators gathered in the capital city, Damascus,
and the southern city of Deraa to protest the arrest and torture of political
prisoners, and demand their release. When security forces opened fire on the
originally peaceful demonstrators in Deraa, killing several, more people took to the
streets. The violent unrest spread steadily across the nation over the following
months demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. By July 2011,
hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets in towns and cities across the
country, and the governments use of military force to crush the dissent seemed only
to harden the protesters resolve.
Opposition supporters eventually began taking up arms, first to defend
themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas. Initially, the
conflict was between the rebels and government forces, but has since fragmented
with rival rebel groups fighting each other for control over rebel-held areas. Syria is
both a religious and ethnic mix of Sunnis, Alawites (an offshoot of Shiite Islam),
Kurds, Christians and Druze. President Assad, a member of the minority Alawite
sect that has ruled the Sunni majority in Syria since 1970, has been trying to cling to
power and save his clan.
The conflict has had disastrous consequences on the civilians who call Syria
their home. From March 2011, when the civil war started, to July 2013, when the
United Nations (UN) stopped updating the death toll, over 100,000 people had been
killed. Today, estimates on the death toll exceed 140,000 people. There are nearly 3
million Syrian refugees mainly in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and to a lesser extent
in Iraq and Egypt. This number is increasing at 100,000 people per month, making
Syrians the largest population of refugees in the world. Jordans Zaatari camp, the
first official refugee camp opened for Syrians in July 2012, is the destination for
many newly arrived refugees. It has a population of about 85,000 Syrians, making it
Jordans fourth largest city. This refuge for displaced Syrians has raised questions
about the role of camps, and has ignited a discussion about the possible need to
treat camps as more than transitional population centers. Residents of Zaatari camp
have started opening barbershops and bike repair shops out of the desire to look
ahead and make the best of the situation. Mr. Abdul Latif, a Syrian refugee and
resident of Zaatari camp explained, We were used to living a decent life back home,
so we had to make something of our situation here.
Inside Syria there are 6.5 million internally displaced persons, taking the
total number of Syrians forced to flee their homes up to 9 million, almost half of the
population. According to the United Nations, by the end of 2014, three quarters of
Syrians are expected to need aid. This estimate has caused the UN to ask for its
largest appeal ever of $6.5 billion to provide medical care, food, water and shelter
for Syrians in need.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been working in
Syria since 1964. Since then the organization has provided more than $500 million
worth of food assistance in the country in both development and emergency
operations. Currently, WFP is reaching nearly 4 million people per month in Syria
with vital food assistance, and is helping hundreds of thousands of refugees who
have fled into neighboring countries. In order to reach areas that have been hard hit
by the fighting, WFP has been working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC)
and 23 other local organizations. This year, WFP plans to assist 2.9 million people in
Syrias neighboring countries, mostly through food vouchers, which allow families
to choose their own food and help boost the local economy. By the end of the year
WFP aims to reach 300,000 vulnerable children with additional ready-to-eat
supplementary products to prevent and treat malnutrition.
WFPs Syrian country director, Matthew Hollingworth, is an alumnus of the
Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs' first International Diploma in
Humanitarian Assistance (IDHA). Recently, Hollingworth spoke to the BBCs Jeremy
Bowen in a video interview about the ongoing work of WFP in Syria as part of a
larger story on the suffering civilians in the city of Aleppo. According to
Hollingworth, WFP feeds nearly four million people every month. The rations are
enough for a family of five to survive on for a month and include iodized salt,
vegetable oil, pasta, canned beans, dried beans, rice, wheat flour, etc. Speaking of
the importance of WFPs work and mission, Hollingworth explains that for many of
the people you will have met who have been displaced two, three, four, five times
over the last three years of war, this is the mainstay of everything that they can give
to their families. Without this there is no question that we would start to see really
serious cases of malnutrition.
One of the main challenges that Hollingworth addresses in his interview is
accessing all of the people who are in need. He notes that one of the biggest
difficulties in humanitarian assistance currently is the politicization of aid, One of
the biggest difficulties we have these days is that humanitarian assistance is being
politicized, and there is too much talk of where people are living are they living on
the opposition side? Are they living on the government side? I mean I think
essentially the whole discussion of bad citizen good citizen just on where they
happen to be seeking refuge is a toxic one and one that we have to get past. The
rest of the interview can be found on the BBC website in the article Syria Conflict:
the suffering civilians of West Aleppo under the heading Caught in the Middle.

Updated 7/14/14

For More Information:

Syria conflict: The Suffering Civilians of West Aleppo - BBC News
Syria Aid Needed, Refugee Agency Says - NY Times



WOMEN IN SYRIA STRUGGLING ALONE

In a recently published report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) it was
discovered that more than 145,000 Syrian refugee women run their households
alone, more than a quarter of the total number of Syrian refugees. UNHCR published
a map depicting the Syrian refugee women as heads of household in various
countries that border Syria. In Lebanon, there are 70,189 women who are heads of
household. Nearly 80 percent of the 2.9 million people who fled the civil war in
Syria are women and children, and nearly 100,000 refugees are entering Syria's
neighboring countries each month. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards noted, "It is
really a catastrophic situation...The women are a very vulnerable group in the
broader refugee population - it's very much a crisis within a crisis."
Many women lived in households in Syria where the men were the
breadwinners; now these women are forced into a totally new situation. One of the
major struggles that the Syrian women are facing is lack of access to
resources. Zahwa, a refugee in Jordan remarked, "I was living in dignity, but now no
one respects me because I'm not with a man." She reported being harassed by
refugees when collecting food coupons. Without their husbands present, many
women are feeling extremely vulnerable. Diala, a woman living in Alexandria, Egypt
said, "A woman alone in Egypt is prey to all men." Diala reports getting the most
unwanted male attention on public transportation. UNHCR Deputy Representative
in Cairo, Elizabeth Tan, says: "Women affected by the conflict in Syria continue to be
easy targets of sexual violence and harassment in the countries of asylum, in
addition to the plight of leaving your own country and being dispossessed of
everything.
In conversations with Lina, one of the 135 women with whom UNHCR field
workers spoke, she speaks of the challenges she is now faced with. A mother to
seven children, three of whom have psoriasis, Lina has not heard from her husband
since he was detained in Syria two years ago. She is struggling to make the best of
the resources that are available to her. With her brothers' help, she built a tent from
wood and pieces of fabric. She has added a mirror, constructed of broken pieces of
glass, and decorated further using her children's drawings in order to make the tent
feel more like home. In order to give her children something to play with she has
sewn dolls for her children and dresses them in scraps of cloth. In telling her story
she adds, "People develop. I develop. When left alone, you have to push boundaries
and make things happen. When you are weak, you are done. You have to be strong
to defend yourself, your kids, and the household." This mirrors the sentiment that
UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie received from the Syrian women with whom
she had spoken when she explained, "Syrian refugee women are the glue holding
together a broken society. Their strength is extraordinary, but they are struggling
alone."
Updated 7/21/14

For More Information:

"Alone and Exposed, Syrian Refugee Women Fight for Survival" -
Thomson Reuters Foundation
"Map: Syrian Refugee Women as Heads of Household" - Thomson Reuters
Foundation
"Woman Alone: the Fight for Survival by Syria's Refugee Women" -
UNHCR