Press release

New UK support for Syria

UK allocates over £36 million to organisations working inside Syria and across the region.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
Syrian children at a clinic in Jordan. Picture: Russell Watkins/DFID

Syrian children at a clinic in Jordan. Picture: Russell Watkins/DFID

The UK has today allocated over £36 million in funding to organisations working inside Syria and across the region. This includes:

Support for girls and women (£5.95 million).

The crisis in Syria has placed many girls and women at risk of violence, exploitation and insecurity, with many experiencing trauma including sexual violence. Many households are now supported solely by women, who often lack the assets to meet the needs of themselves and their children.

  • £5.95 million to Doctors of the World, to provide medical and healthcare support for tens of thousands of female refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. This includes reproductive health services and specialised care for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

No lost generation of Syrian children (£7.3 million):

UNICEF says that nearly half of Syria’s school-age children, more than 2.8 million, cannot get an education as education services collapse and classrooms are destroyed. It estimates that 2 million children affected by the fighting are in need of psychological support or treatment, more than 10,000 have been killed and around 1.2 million are refugees.

  • £6.5 million to UNICEF to provide 70,000 children with alternative education and 27,000 vulnerable children and women with access to psychosocial support, as well as creating child-friendly spaces, child protection committees and providing psychosocial support and education for tens of thousands of children across the region;

  • £0.8 million to Doctors of the World to provide psychosocial support to young people in Jordan and Lebanon.

Vaccination programmes for children (£4 million)

Polio has reoccurred in Syria after 14 years of the country being certified ‘Polio-Free’, while ongoing fighting and blocks on medical supplies are making it difficult to vaccinate children for common diseases like measles.

  • £0.5 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to cover measles and rubella vaccinations for 3.4 million children in Jordan

  • £1.5 million to UNICEF for health initiatives including vaccinating 450,000 children inside Syria against measles

  • Polio vaccinations for over 2.5 million children across the region, including inside Syria, with £2 million funding for UNICEF and WHO.

Ensuring food reaches some of the most vulnerable (£13 million)

The World Food Programme aims to reach as many as 4.25 million people inside Syria every month, but insecurity is leaving half a million people without food assistance. Shocking pictures emerging from Yarmouk last month highlighted the suffering of Palestinian refugees there, a story that is repeated in camps and towns across Syria.

  • £2 million food and cash assistance for 50,000 of the most vulnerable Palestinian refugees in Syria via UNRWA, which has led the response in Yarmouk;

  • £11 million to the World Food Programme, to provide nearly 550,000 people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with food rations and cash vouchers for three months.

Helping with the basics (£6.5 million)

The UN estimates there are 9.3 million people in need inside Syria – equivalent to almost the entire population of Sweden. 6.5 million have been forced to flee their homes inside Syria, while there are a further 2.5 million refugees. Most have left with nothing but the most basic of possessions.

  • £1.5 million to UNICEF to provide health care, clean water and help with sanitation inside Syria;

  • £5 million to the Danish Refugee Council, to help vulnerable Syrian refugee families living outside of camps, with basic everyday items such as cooking kits and bedding, cash assistance and help developing livelihoods skills, helping 40,000 people over two years.

For full details of the UK humanitarian response to the crisis in Syria, please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/syria-the-latest-updates-on-uk-aid.

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Published 15 March 2014