Syrian refugee crisis | Stories From The Field

Coronavirus – A Deadly New Threat

Posted on March 27, 2020 by MikeGreenslade

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CORONAVIRUS AND FAMILIES LIVING THROUGH DISASTER

People in a refugee camp in Syria — Our partners working in already difficult conditions in Syria.

**Like you, the team here at ShelterBox are concerned about the impact Coronavirus is having on our lives and the world around us.**

We are lucky to be living in a country with robust health services and significant medical resources. Most of us are able to self-isolate in our own homes and care for ourselves and each other.

Yet for people who are homeless because of conflict or other disaster, Coronavirus is a new and deadly threat. Millions of families around the world have had resources stripped from them and have nothing no way of protecting themselves and their children. And they have no access to healthcare.

Coronavirus is shining a spotlight on the fundamental importance of home to our health and wellbeing, and our ability to deal with the serious problems that life can bring. Whilst we are adapting to new routines, working from home or self-isolating, we can all appreciate how important our home is for our physical and mental health.

All of our lives are being affected by Coronavirus in some way, but those living in refugee camps or in makeshift settlements are particularly vulnerable. **Imagine being seriously ill, with no roof over your head.** There’s little hope of ‘social distancing’ when there are no blankets to keep your children warm. You can’t wash your hands frequently when there is no clean water. You can’t make your children nutritious meals when there is not enough food, nowhere to cook and nothing to cook it in.

Please think about making a donation today: https://www.shelterboxaustralia.org.au/donate/

Syria-corona — Our partners working in already difficult conditions in Syria.

**Like you, the team here at ShelterBox are concerned about the impact Coronavirus is having on our lives and the world around us.**

We are lucky to be living in a country with robust health services and significant medical resources. Most of us are able to self-isolate in our own homes and care for ourselves and each other.

Yet for people who are homeless because of conflict or other disaster, Coronavirus is a new and deadly threat. Millions of families around the world have had resources stripped from them and have nothing no way of protecting themselves and their children. And they have no access to healthcare.

Coronavirus is shining a spotlight on the fundamental importance of home to our health and wellbeing, and our ability to deal with the serious problems that life can bring. Whilst we are adapting to new routines, working from home or self-isolating, we can all appreciate how important our home is for our physical and mental health.

All of our lives are being affected by Coronavirus in some way, but those living in refugee camps or in makeshift settlements are particularly vulnerable. **Imagine being seriously ill, with no roof over your head.** There’s little hope of ‘social distancing’ when there are no blankets to keep your children warm. You can’t wash your hands frequently when there is no clean water. You can’t make your children nutritious meals when there is not enough food, nowhere to cook and nothing to cook it in.

Please think about making a donation today: https://www.shelterboxaustralia.org.au/donate/

After Aleppo – Aid chief says, ‘People have escaped one hell only to be caught in another.’

Posted on February 28, 2017 by MikeGreenslade

©ReliefAid

ShelterBox and its partners are helping displaced families cope with the grim realities of life under canvas, in the cold and mud, with only basic amenities. These battle-weary people, formerly residents of a thriving city, now need every kind of aid imaginable – even lighting, children’s clothes, and sewing kits.

We all breathed a sigh when we saw families being bused out of Aleppo just before Christmas. For them, at least, the fear of daily thirst, starvation and bombings was over. But now aid workers are finding that displacement is bringing other severe hardships.

©ReliefAid

Farid, a Syrian staff member with ShelterBox partner ReliefAid, says, ‘I am deeply shocked by the living conditions of the camps where Aleppo families are now living. Even coming from East Aleppo where the destruction was huge and the humanitarian situation dire, the situation in the camps is worse. I have not seen anything like this before. No toilets, no water, mud everywhere.’

It takes a lot to shock aid workers in Syria, particularly former residents of Aleppo. Farid and his ReliefAid colleagues had seen their office bombed, and one of their team gunned down as he worked on a rooftop. But now, having quit their home city, razed to the ground by years of warfare, they have followed their neighbours into dozens of makeshift displacement camps dotted across the desert.

True, they are now out of the line of fire. But in every other way conditions could hardly be more harsh. Mike Seawright, Founder and Executive Director of ReliefAid, has worked in partnership with UK-based ShelterBox throughout the Syrian civil war, distributing its aid in some of the most dangerous territory on earth. Mike says, ‘People forced from their homes in Aleppo City are now having to live in freezing conditions surrounded by mud and water.’

‘They are joining families who have been living under the intense heat of summer and freezing winter conditions, including snow and ice, for five seasons. People have escaped one hell only to be caught in another.’

‘Families are now living in tents, having lost loved ones, with no idea how they will keep themselves warm at night. Without our collective support people will literally not survive.’

©ReliefAid

The ReliefAid team and ShelterBox are now gearing up to provide more aid to Syria’s displacement camps throughout March. They are concentrating on settlements in Idlib Governorate, particularly fifteen informal camps. The families here have been displaced from Aleppo over months, including in December’s exodus, and from areas in the south of the country.

Mike adds, ‘As you can see from our photos living conditions are very difficult. These smaller informal camps have been largely ignored as aid organisations look to provide assistance to sites that are easier to access and allow faster distribution. Families in these informal camps have significant needs which our next distribution is looking to address.’

©ReliefAid

ShelterBox is providing 5,000 blankets and mattresses to help combat the cold, 4,000 sets of children’s clothing, and 4,000 pairs of jeans and jumpers. 1,000 tarpaulins are included for waterproofing tents and buildings, and 4,000 20 litre water carriers. Then there are the less expected items – solar lamps for safety in the dark desert nights, hammers and fixings, duct tape and rope.

Without the financial means to purchase new clothing and tents, repairing them is an essential task in camp life. So the inclusion of 1,000 sewing kits means that families can make their precious materials last as long as possible.

ShelterBox’s Sam Hewett says, ‘Wherever you look in this region displaced families are living threadbare existences in uncomfortable conditions. These aid items bring some relief, particularly to the vulnerable, the young, the elderly. We will continue to source partnerships and aid routes that can find them, whether they have settled in large camps or small ad hoc encampments.’

You can help by donating here: PLEASE DONATE

Warm hands, warm hearts. ShelterBox brings heat to families on the run in the icy Syrian winter.

Posted on February 11, 2017 by MikeGreenslade

Displaced families in Syria are in peril in their desperation to keep warm. Last week a makeshift kerosene heater exploded at the Bab Salama camp in north Aleppo, burning down two tents and injuring the occupants. UK agency ShelterBox is sending safer heaters into northern Syria.

Idleb in northern Syria is host to hundreds of thousands of families fleeing war, most of them now in vast displacement camps. But the area is also in the grip of an icy winter, with night-time temperatures as low as -9 degrees centigrade.

Some families are huddling in draughty single-room shelters constructed from concrete with tin roofs, with no source of heating and no windows. Others are living under canvas. So, the temptation is to improvise, to burn wood, or to make basic heaters out of tin cans, with naked flames and noxious fumes. The dangers are obvious, and spontaneous fires are frequent in this daily battle against the cold.

So, to minimise fire-related tragedies while warming young hands, UK aid agencies ShelterBox and its in-country partner Hand in Hand for Syria have just distributed 1,000 high-spec kerosene heaters to families in Idleb.

ShelterBox Operations Coordinator Sam Hewett will shortly be travelling to the region to check on the charity’s aid programmes in Syria.

Sam says, ‘We typically provide items to help insulate people against the cold. But it’s not always enough, as people need a source of heat as well. By providing heaters such as these people are able to get some comfort and undertake basic household activities such as cooking.’

‘But it also helps to prevent diseases—particularly those related to long-term exposure to cold and damp conditions and noxious fumes—that they would be exposed to from using improvised stoves.’

The 1,000 Diora kerosene cooker/heaters come supplied with fuel, and the families are shown how to use them safely and with proper ventilation.

You can help those displaced by the conflict in Syria by donating to our Syria Refugee Appeal here:

PLEASE DONATE

At last, heartwarming photos of Aleppo’s children receiving ShelterBox aid

Posted on December 24, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

They have been on the most terrifying of journeys unaware that the world was watching. Now thousands of the children of Aleppo have reached relative safety, been given warm clothing, their families receiving aid from disaster relief charity ShelterBox and its partners

At one point these are the photos we thought we’d never see. Thousands of Aleppo families bussed out of the world’s most war-ravaged city to be greeted at displacement camps, and given clothing and other aid that has waited at a tantalising distance for months.

These images just received at ShelterBox’s Cornwall HQ show aid workers from in-country partner, London-based Hand in Hand for Syria, greeting the most vulnerable of the exodus from Aleppo. The aid shown is hats and scarves – essential as it has started to snow in the region – and other non-food items supplied by ShelterBox. It is part of an ongoing programme to help families displaced by the Syrian civil war.

ShelterBox Operations Co-ordinator Sam Hewett says, ‘The fighting in and around Aleppo that has been broadcast in recent weeks is indicative of the intolerable position that people throughout Syria are forced to endure.’

Due to the support of our generous donors, ShelterBox has been able to support people as they are evacuated from the city with items such as clothing and bedding, to shelter them from the cold winter conditions. This would not be possible without the presence of our partner organisations, whose staff share the same fatal risks as the people they are trying to help.’

Hand in Hand for Syria’s team are reported to have all escaped Aleppo over the weekend, and the last of New Zealand-based ReliefAid’s team of 40 Aleppo residents has just been reported safely evacuated.

The actual locations of this latest aid distribution are being withheld for security reasons.

You can help by donating here: Please Donate

ShelterBox helping the displaced residents of Darraya, Syria

Posted on September 1, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

End of a four year siege. Victims of ‘starvation or surrender’ war zone head towards a displacement camp of ShelterBox UN style tents

For a gruelling four years, residents of Darraya in the Syrian capital Damascus have lived under siege, with little aid and people starving to death. A new deal is seeing thousands of civilians moved to displacement camps in the south and north, where ShelterBox tents are waiting.

Caught since 2012 between the regime and the rebels, the people of Darraya in Damascus have endured a miserable four years as pawns in a deadly stand-off. An unknown number have died in fighting, bombing, or of malnutrition.

Over the weekend a huge evacuation was triggered by a military deal to cease fighting, which has been characterised as a long running ‘starve or surrender’ strategy. An estimated 8,000 civilians moved by foot and then onto aid buses to uncertain futures in displacement camps either in Sahnaya to the south west, or to Idlib in the north.

ShelterBox has supplied thirty large UN-style tents and other non-food items to a camp in Idlib Governorate near the Turkish border. Much of this aid was trucked in months ago, and more is queuing at the border. The tents have been delivered and erected by ShelterBox’s in-country partner organisation, London-based Hand in Hand for Syria.

Around fifty green and white buses, eight ambulances and several Red Crescent and UN vehicles stood ready early on Friday waiting for the signal to drive into Darraya. The suburb of Damascus now lies in ruins. Tearful residents said their final goodbyes. ‘This is the hardest moment, everyone is crying, young and old,’ said one resident. The first buses to emerge with evacuees carried mostly children, elderly people and women.

ShelterBox Operations Co-ordinator Sam Hewett says, ‘The siege of Darraya has been one of the longest-running human tragedies in Syria. Although thousands have left their homes this weekend, they are heading to safer places where there will be food, water and shelter. An exodus on this scale is hard to witness, but at least ShelterBox and Hand in Hand for Syria have been able to provide some comfort for these weary people displaced by war.’

United Nation’s humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien reported to the Security Council earlier this year that the lack of food in Darraya was forcing some people to eat grass, and that residents were burning plastics as fuel. ‘No one will remain here,’ said Hussam Ayash from Darraya. ‘Our condition has deteriorated to the point of being unbearable.’

The UN said it was not involved in negotiating the deal, but that a team will enter Darraya to identify civilian needs. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura says, ‘It is tragic that repeated appeals to lift the siege of Darraya and cease the fighting have never been heeded.’ He added it is ‘imperative’ that its residents be protected, and evacuated only voluntarily, adding, ‘The world is watching.’

You can help by donating here: PLEASE DONATE

‘We are waiting to die.’ Aleppo aid workers heartfelt plea, ahead of World Humanitarian Day – 19th August

Posted on August 18, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

In the week when the UN calls for a more humane world, ShelterBox partner, ReliefAid hears a graphic description of the fear and suffering inside war-shattered Aleppo. With 150 air strikes in a day, and aid workers, their families and buildings in constant peril, they warn ‘nowhere is safe’

The United Nations’ World Humanitarian Day is held every year on 19 August to pay tribute to aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service, and to mobilise people to advocate for a more humane world.

It falls as the Syrian city of Aleppo is still crumbling under continuous bombing, its people barely coping with a lack of electricity, clean water, fuel or affordable food.

New Zealand-based ReliefAid has a team based in Aleppo, many of them with their families. Like two million others who remain in Aleppo, they are now trapped in a besieged city amid escalating fighting. Only days ago they were distributing the last of a consignment of aid from international disaster relief agency ShelterBox, a total of 4,000 kits over the last six months, able to help over 24,500 people. The last 1,500 – a mix of life-saving essentials including water purification equipment, jerry cans, mats, solar lamps, tarpaulins, mosquito nets and kitchen sets – were delivered to families shortly after the closure of the arterial Castello Road cut Aleppo off from aid and from the outside world.

Executive Director of ReliefAid, Mike Seawright is in Turkey, and in constant touch with his team in Aleppo. Today he told Larry Williams of New Zealand’s ‘Newstalk ZB’ radio station, ‘Yesterday alone my team reported 150 air strikes. I talk to my team on a daily basis, and they are part of the community. Their homes are getting hit, their markets are getting attacked. Last week our office was hit in a strike that was targeting the building next door.’

‘They hit the building beside us, and the effect of that is that we’ve had to move to a new location in the city. And literally two days later there was a gas attack on that neighbourhood. So nowhere is safe.’

‘And in some cases first responders, for example the ‘white helmets’ who go and get people out of buildings after they’ve been attacked and destroyed, appear to have been deliberately targeted in follow-up attacks. There is no respect for the humanitarian space inside Aleppo city.’

Mike reports a conversation with one of the ReliefAid team that paints a bleak picture. ‘My team have families within the city. There has been a complete loss of faith in the international community to react to what has been a systematic campaign to destroy east Aleppo. I was talking to one of my team and his view, which is very pessimistic, is that we are waiting to die. Waiting for our tomb, for when the air strike hits us.’

World Humanitarian Day is marked every year with events held around the world. Under the banner of ‘One Humanity’ the UN and its partners hope to inspire greater global action for the 130 million people affected by conflict and disaster.

In New York a special event will be held at the General Assembly tomorrow from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. Hala Kalim and her four children, whose arduous journey from Aleppo to Germany was featured in the documentary ‘Children of Syria’, will attend. They will tell the world their story of the impossible choices they faced living in, and fleeing, Syria. A wreath-laying ceremony will also be held at the UN Headquarters to honour aid workers who lost their lives in humanitarian service.

A truck left ShelterBox HQ in Cornwall, UK this morning loaded with aid for Syria – kitchen sets and 980 tarpaulins. It will meet up with another consignment containing 2,000 shelter kits. Another ShelterBox truckload is already en route across Europe with 4,860 tarpaulins.

You can help by donating to our Syria Refugee Appeal here: PLEASE DONATE

Shelterbox Partner, Relief Aid’s Office Bombed In Aleppo

Posted on August 15, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

Just as the distribution of the last of 4,000 kits to Aleppo families had finished, the offices of ShelterBox distribution partner, ReliefAid were wrecked by an air strike. Working in one of the most dangerous places on earth, Aleppo’s aid workers say that time is fast running out. Moving words from an aid worker trapped in the unfolding horror of Aleppo – a city bomb-strewn and besieged. Farid (name changed for security reasons) talks to us directly from the east of the city, and the scene of an air strike on their Aleppo HQ.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO FILE HERE

Farid says, ‘On the 9 August at 8.00 am, just an hour before starting a new work day, the building next to our office get air strike. Thank God the damage is in the infrastructure, and we move the equipment to a safe place and suspended the work to ensure the safety of the team members.’

‘Actually we get used to air strikes, bombs and everything in our neighbourhoods, and all of the city. But now the situation is so different. Our work is the only reason to stay in Aleppo and take all the risk. We help our people, we bring clean water to them, we bring blankets to warm them, we bring solar lamps. This is our people, and the reason we stay in Aleppo. But now we are disappointed and shocked.’

ShelterBox has provided 4,000 aid packages to families in Aleppo via in-country partners, New Zealand-based ReliefAid. The kits they provide to families are a mix of life-saving essentials including water purification equipment, jerry cans, mats, solar lamps, tarpaulins, mosquito nets and kitchen sets. In recent days the UN has insisted that only 48 hour ceasefires will allow aid to flow again into the surrounded city, which is now mostly without clean water, electricity, fuel for generators or vehicles, with food supplies dwindling and unaffordable.

Aleppo has been under constant siege for more than 4 years ©Voice of America News: Scott Bobb

This week, the United Nations children’s agency warned that children are at ‘grave risk of disease’ unless water supplies are immediately repaired. Healthcare provision is also shattered, with Aleppo doctor Hamza Al-Khatib telling BBC Newsnight that it is ‘a nightmare for medics and for patients.’ Yesterday there were reports of a barrel bomb explosion releasing toxic chlorine gas.

Just before the air strike on ReliefAid’s offices Farid reported, ‘I couldn’t leave my home for four days because the bombing gets so heavy on my neighbourhood. I couldn’t even leave to get any food or water. My situation is similar to 300,000 other people who live in Aleppo, 19,000 of them children under 2 years.’ ‘So many families rely on humanitarian aid, they have no money, and after the (Castello) road closed they have nothing to eat. The security situation is so bad, and the bombing is so heavy. People who will not die from bombing they will start to starve, they will drink unclean water, they will die from lack of medicine and healthcare.’

Just ahead of the air strike Executive Director of ReliefAid, Mike Seawright, reported good news about the last shipment of ShelterBox aid to arrive in the city. ‘I am pleased to announce that we have completed the distribution of the remaining 250 kits to families with special needs within the city. As such all 1,500 summer shelter kits are now in the hands of over 9000 people living within the city.’ ‘It has been a challenging time for our team but I am proud to say they have managed the situation well, in what have been very difficult circumstances. Families continue to experience acute needs within the city, and we stand ready to assist those in dire need.’

ReliefAid’s brave team has been distributing shelter kits in Aleppo for ShelterBox over the last six months – a total of 4,000 kits able to support over 24,500 people.

You can help by donating to our Syrian Refugee Appeal

‘How long will food and water last?’ Aleppo city now in a stranglehold

Posted on August 1, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

ShelterBox is fearful for 300,000 residents completely cut off from aid

Aleppo – child with destroyed cityscape background

Syrian Government and rebel forces are locked in conflict over the divided city of Aleppo, with essential aid lifeline the Castello Road now impassable. An estimated 300,000 civilians, 60% of them women and children, are caught in the crossfire with dwindling supplies of food and water.

In a volatile and fast-changing situation, Syrian rebel fighters are continuing their assault on government-held districts of Aleppo after troops cut their only route into the divided northern city.

Aleppo is now effectively partitioned, with much of the west of the city held by Syrian Government forces, while rebel troops occupy the east. Attempts by rebels to re-open the arterial Castello Road, the only route to the east and the last remaining aid lifeline, have failed.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, says, ‘An estimated 300,000 people residing in eastern Aleppo city depend on the (Castello) road, which allowed the flow of humanitarian supplies, commercial goods, and civilian movement. We continue to receive distressing reports of aerial bombardment and shelling on civilian locations in both western and eastern Aleppo city.’ He has called for the ‘rapid, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians who wish to leave.’ But all exits are now blocked.

Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, its financial and industrial hub. Of enormous historical significance, it is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Now vast areas lie in ruins, and without utilities and infrastructure much of it is uninhabitable.

Attacks against areas of eastern Aleppo have continued unabated, with civilians indiscriminately killed and injured, and there are warnings of humanitarian workers being targeted. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, ‘hundreds of mortars and projectiles were launched on western Aleppo. From 8 to 11 July, 57 people were reportedly killed including 15 children and 497 were injured.’

The BBC’s Middle East Analyst Diana Darke describes this as ‘Syria’s end game’ adding that ‘Aleppo is no stranger to sieges – there have been at least eight recorded across its turbulent history. But this one promises to last longer than all the others put together.’ In recent days it has been reported that military targeting of water supply networks is now a daily occurrence. When the water pumping station at Al-Khafsah in Aleppo failed, cutting off water supply to half of the city, there was panic and chaos, with people resorting to drinking from puddles in the streets.

Charity Save the Children says that hospitals and schools are also being attacked, with at least nine medical facilities bombed in the past week in Aleppo and Idlib. It warns that the whole of Northwest Syria is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

ShelterBox has been providing aid to Aleppo for many months via distributing partner charities – London based Hand in Hand for Syria and New Zealand based ReliefAid. Consignments of 4,000 Shelter Kits, containing a variety of essential items such as jerry cans, mats, solar lamps, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, kitchen sets, and water purification equipment, have been delivered by ReliefAid over the last 6 months, 1,500 of them just before the Castello Road closed.

Aleppo Relief Aid warehouse

ShelterBox partners ReliefAid say that there are already fuel shortages in eastern Aleppo, critical because so many people and businesses rely on generators for power.

ReliefAid Executive Director Mike Seawright also noted, ‘In addition the price of food and other basic commodities essential for daily living have sky-rocketed overnight. Families already suffering acute food shortages are left wondering how they will put food on the table.’

ShelterBox Operations Team Lead Alice Jefferson says, ‘We are glad to have been able to place aid very recently into eastern Aleppo via our partners ReliefAid, part of an inward flow over many months. But now with all aid routes cut off it is hard to see what the next step can be.’

‘Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped in areas that are being bombarded, and no-one can tell how long essential supplies of food and water will last. ShelterBox and its in-country partners are ready to deploy again as soon as humanitarian access is granted.’

Five years of war in Syria have claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people. Millions have fled the conflict, but nearly 18 million people still live in the war-torn country. The United Nations estimates more than 6 million of them are classed as ‘internally displaced’ after being forced to flee their homes to look for safer places to live. Most have fled the cities to seek shelter in the countryside.

ShelterBox has provided tents, shelter kits, clothing and educational equipment, both inside Aleppo, and in displacement camps within Syria and refugee camps in neighbouring countries including Iraq Kurdistan, Jordan and Lebanon. ShelterBox’s Operations team is monitoring the latest developments, and is in touch with colleague organisations on the ground in Syria.

You can help by donating to our Syria Refugee Appeal

ShelterBox Condemns Kamounia Camp Bombing In Syria

Posted on May 7, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

Father and child in a makeshift ambulance in Kamounia

While the UN decides whether to classify an air strike on a makeshift camp for displaced people in northern Syria as a war crime, disaster relief agency ShelterBox condemns the targeting of families on the run from war.

Thursday’s air strike on a makeshift camp for displaced families near the Syria/Turkey border, in which at least 28 people died – many of them women and children – has been condemned as a possible war crime by the UN.

The bombing of the Kamounia camp in the northern Idlib province came only a day after the extension of a ‘partial cessation of hostilities’ truce was confirmed. Reports say the strike on the rebel-held area was by Syrian or Russian planes, but this has not been confirmed.

Stephen O’Brien, head of humanitarian affairs at the UN, has called for an inquiry into the attack. He told the BBC, ‘Be in no doubt that all these terrible acts, wherever they happen and whoever perpetrates them, will not be forgotten and the people who perpetrate them will be held to account.’

The Kamounia camp is in the volatile region of Idlib, only 2.5 miles from the city of Sarmada and within six miles of the Turkish border. ShelterBox has been active in Syria and its neighbouring countries for over four years. Operations Co-ordinator Sam Hewett was recently in Turkey overseeing ShelterBox aid operations with in-country partners ReliefAid and Hand in Hand for Syria.

Sam says, ‘Sarmada is very close to the Turkish border and a large number of people have moved to this area because it was meant to be less at risk of this type of attack. These are large camps, and obviously not military in nature.’

‘Our partners have undertaken distributions of ShelterBox aid as part of the Sarmada camp cluster. I do not know if any of the households that we have directly supported have been affected by this air strike, and it would be very difficult to find out.’

ShelterBox Interim Chief Executive Chris Warham adds, ‘It is the most inhuman act to use women and children fleeing war as military targets. This shocking event can only fuel the desperation of thousands more families to head for the border, and the perceived safety of refugee status. Those in Kamouna, as in other Syrian camps, are classified as internally displaced persons rather than refugees, so have less protection under international law.’

ShelterBox Providing Comfort To Children Living Through Conflict In Syria

Posted on March 16, 2016 by MikeGreenslade

A child in Idlib province, where we are partnering with Hand in Hand for Syria to provide tents for shelter and for classrooms. (Credit Hand in Hand for Syria).

Five years after the conflict in Syria first broke out, there are now 6 million children in need of humanitarian assistance. Thousands have died, many more live under siege with precious little food, and almost half of those in need have had to leave their homes.

We have been supporting people affected by the crisis since 2012, not only in Syria itself but in surrounding countries such as Iraq as well as Greece. In the midst of this conflict, we are painfully aware that children are some of the hardest hit – many will remember nothing else than the fighting.

Recently, our partners Hand in Hand for Syria found a whole classroom of children having lessons in an underground cave in the province of Idlib.

In this video, the team from Hand in Hand for Syria asks the teachers and children what it’s like working in a cave, and what supplies they need to help their lessons. Incredibly, they don’t ask for a proper school with desks and a playground, but simply for schoolbags and textbooks.

Together with Hand in Hand for Syria, we have set up large UN specification tents in Idlib province, some of which will be used as classrooms so that children will have somewhere light and ventilated to learn.

Sam Hewett, ShelterBox Operations Coordinator, said: ‘Some of the tents we’ve provided are going to be used as classrooms, so that they don’t have to learn underground. This is just one example of the extreme conditions people are living in.’

In the winter, we worked with ReliefAid, another of our partners, to provide warm coats, hats, gloves and scarves to protect people from the bitter cold. These were not only distributed along with shelter kits to families that needed to weatherproof damaged houses, but to schools and orphanages in the city of Aleppo too.

Sam said: ‘‘It is distressing to think of children living in these awful conditions, often without safe shelter, heating, even basic food and sanitation. Our partner agencies are doing great work delivering aid in difficult and dangerous territory.

‘It is so uplifting to see images of children receiving these items, showing moments of happiness as ShelterBox clothing is given to these most deserving children.’

Syrian children wrapped in fleece coats, hats, gloves and scarves

Children in schools and orphanages from Aleppo, Syria receive warm clothes during the bitter winter weather. (Credit ReliefAid)

As the conflict moves on into its sixth year, ShelterBox is continuing to support the families caught up in the crisis. Working with partners such as Hand in Hand for Syria and ReliefAid, we are reaching people displaced by the fighting and those trapped by it.

In Aleppo, which is currently under siege as opposing forces fight for control of the ancient city, we have just finished distributing winterised shelter kits, comprising mattresses, tarpaulins, plastic sheeting, solar lights and water carriers.

For the families unable to leave the city, these kits are providing materials to repair damaged buildings and make shelters warm and more comfortable. Solar lamps bring a source of light to a city without electricity and water carriers are enabling people to collect and transport water from safe sources.

However, there is no end in sight for the conflict. There are still thousands of families in need of shelter and we need your help to reach them. Please donate today.