- Current humanitarian appeals are dramatically underfunded
- Aid agency warns a lack of funding threatens its efforts to help children in Syria and the region
In a year shaping up to the be one of the worst in the seven-year Syria crisis, governments and leaders must recommit to a better future for the country’s children. That’s the message from World Vision on the eve of the Brussels II Conference, beginning tomorrow (April 24).
“For every two dollars that’s been given to meet the needs this year, another eight are needed, while more than 13 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria, and children bear the brunt of the deepening crisis,” said World Vision Director of Humanitarian Policy Nina Nepesova in Brussels for the conference.
”The international humanitarian community struggles year on year to meet the mounting needs of children and their families,” said Nepesova. “But all we can hope to do is to put a plaster on a gaping wound. Insecurity, little accountability by those in power, inadequate funding, lack of access to help those most in need all exacerbate the complexity and scale of children’s suffering.”
World Vision warns that it will be unable to meet the staggering needs unless donors attending the Syria Conference commit to fully fund the humanitarian response, especially under-resourced sectors like education and child protection.
World Vision’s recent report Beyond Survival, showed that 50 per cent of children surveyed inside Syria have experienced domestic violence on top of living in the midst of an ongoing violent conflict. Their experiences suggest that they intrinsically accept daily hardships as part of life as a displaced person.
“This is children’s new normal, and it is one we cannot allow to continue,” adds Nepesova.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- For more information, pictures and stories of children, or interviews with World Vision spokespeople, please contact Ludovic Wahis, Policy and Communications Officer, World Vision Brussels & EU Representation, +32 (0) 2 274 18 67 (direct line) +32 (0) 472 50 68 72 (cell), Ludovic_Wahis@wvi.org
- In February 2018, World Vision surveyed more than 1200 Syrian children (aged 11 to 17, half boys half girls), living inside Southern Syria and in refugee camps and host communities in Lebanon and Jordan, about their daily lives.