One million people have been wounded during Syrian civil war by OCHA, ICRC, Handicap International, agencies 4:39am 4th Mar, 2015   31 mar 2015    Donors pledge $3.8bn in humanitarian aid for Syrians. (Guardian News)    The international community has pledged $3.8bn to tackle the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria – less than half the amount the UN says is needed this year to help the millions of people affected by the ongoing conflict.    At the start of the Third International Pledging Conference for Syria – which was held in Kuwait on Tuesday – the UN asked for $8.4bn: $2.9bn for people inside Syria and $5.5bn to help those who have fled to Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.    The largest sums came from the EU, which pledged $1.2bn, the US ($507m) and Kuwait ($500m). Ahead of this year’s gathering, the German government said it would pledge $277m in new aid. Kuwaiti state media said local charities and aid organisations pledged another $506m just before the conference started.    Gulf envoys addressing the conference said the United Arab Emirates pledged $100m, Saudi Arabia $60m, and Norway $93m. The UK has promised $150m.    The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, described the Syrian situation as the “worst humanitarian crisis of our time” but said the sums promised represented “very generous pledges”.    According to UN estimates, the war has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced 11 million. Nearly 4 million Syrians have fled to five neighbouring countries, where their presence is straining resources and host communities.    The UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, said the situation for the Syrian people was “unsustainable”. He added that the current UN appeal differed from previous ones because it recognised both the immediate and the longer-term imperatives of responding to the crisis.    Oxfam said that although some donors had been generous in Kuwait, the total pledge was still less than half the amount needed. “Unless more donor countries massively step up in the wake of the conference, the increasing numbers of people fleeing their homes and struggling to survive will be less and less likely to receive assistance,” said a spokesman. “What does the international community expect millions of Syrians to survive on?”    On Monday, the charity had criticised the international response to the Syrian crisis, saying money pledged was woefully inadequate.    At last year’s donors’ conference, about $2.4bn was pledged through the UN – well below the $6.5bn requested. In 2013, $1.5bn was pledged, less than half of the UN’s appeal for $4.4bn.    The UN humanitarian office’s Financial Tracking Service said in November that nearly a quarter of last year’s pledges, $585m, remained unfulfilled.    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/31/donors-pledge-4bn-humanitarian-aid-syrians-kuwait-un http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50462#.VRtJV46pX-Y    30 March 2015    Senior UN officials urge donors to stand by Syrian people    The crisis in Syria is getting much worse, characterized by shocking “levels of savagery,” the top United Nations relief official has warned, urging countries to pledge as generously as possible ahead of the Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference in Kuwait City.    “While we are managing to get more aid in through cross-border operations, we are seeing a closing down of our ability to get aid across conflict lines inside Syria. The situation is very grave,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valery Amos said in an interview with UN Radio.    As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, 12.2 million people remain in dire need of aid, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which Ms. Amos heads. Nearly half of all Syrians have been forced from their homes – 3.8 million people have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, and 7.6 million people have been internally displaced – making this the largest displacement crisis in the world.    “Needs are increasing and although the amount donors are giving us is also increasing, it’s not increasing at the same pace. I really want to thank our donors for sticking with us but we all know that a political solution has to be found so that the violence that we are seeing on a daily basis calms down,” she said.    Ms. Amos’s call comes on the eve of the conference to be overseen by the Secretary-General and hosted by the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The Third Pledging Conference aims to mobilize donor support and raise funds required to meet the needs set out in the 2015 Syria Response Plan and the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) 2015-2016.    Ms. Amos said the last two years, conference pledges made a significant contribution to the amount that needed for Syria and neighbouring countries. For example, last year, 90 per cent of the money pledged was received but this year the crisis has spread beyond Syria’s borders and the immediate region.    “What we are seeing are needs increasing not just in Syria and in neighbouring countries but across the world. As I speak to you, we are seeing a very difficult situation, for example, unfolding in Yemen,” she added.    She said that on the margins of the conference: “We want the neighbouring countries to be able to have a voice and have an impact on the region. From the Secretary-General down, we are all in contact with all the countries invited, asking them to pledge generously, and we hope they will.”    Joining Ms. Amos at the conference will be Mr. António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ms. Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Ms. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP).    Ms. Cousin echoed Ms. Amos’ pledge to stand by the Syrian people. “Together, we remain committed to the millions of victims of a conflict that has gone on far too long. As the crisis continues, the needs continue to grow, and the resources of the humanitarian response are stretched further and further.”    “Needs are also changing as the crisis enters a fifth year. We are now faced with Syrian children who have spent the first critical 1,000 days of their lives in a conflict situation without adequate food and nutrients. We must ensure our food assistance addresses the development needs of the most vulnerable victims of this crisis,” she said.    WFP is designing and implementing programmes to respond to the evolving needs of Syrian families. It is also working with UNICEF and other partners to encourage children to go to school through school feeding programmes.    “We must not lose a whole generation to war,” urged Ms. Cousin.    In all, WFP has provided life-saving aid to close to 6 million displaced Syrians every month through providing food assistance, vouchers and electronic cards.    24/03/2015    Ignoring Syria - this is what happens when the world turns away. (Save the Children)    Heartbreaking – this is the word I would use to sum up the stories I have heard while working inside Syria for Save the Children.    Stories like Mary''s, who''s village was attacked by armed men in the middle of the night: "They came at 2am: killing and raping. We weren''t prepared, and we had nothing to protect ourselves with," she told me as we sat in the cold and cramped tent her and her six children now call home. "They showed no mercy that night… I remember seeing children on their mothers backs shot as they tried to run away."    Or six year old Elijah''s, who is now so afraid that the "bad men" will come back that he spends all day guarding his family''s home with a wooden ''gun'': "I try and tell him it is ok and take the gun off him," his father shared with me as Elijah stood ''guard'' outside and watched the front gate throughout our interview. "But he only makes another and starts again. I worry about him so much. All he knows is war."    Or Marwan''s, who at 15 years old has missed so many years of school that he is worried he no longer has a future: "I am trying hard to catch up but I don''t know what will happen next and whether we will take our exams," he told me in the bullet-scarred classroom that was until very recently occupied by armed forces. "When I grow up I want to be a doctor so that I can help people but I worry that I have lost too much time, that I will be left behind."    And Ayman''s, the husband and father who''s full time ''job'' now is just finding enough food so that the 21 people completely dependent on him don''t starve: "My father is sick and needs medicine which we cant afford. It is a choice between medicine for him or food for us all," he recounted as his family huddled under one blanket next to me to protect themselves from the bitter cold. "I am the only one earning money and it isn''t enough. There are no jobs and little food."    These are just four heartbreaking stories that inadequately symbolise what millions of people inside Syria are experiencing on a daily basis due to this bloody, brutal and seemingly endless war.    Four stories to represent the four years of failure by the international community to end their appalling suffering.    Four stories to reflect the shame we should feel that even when it looks like things can truly get no worse, somehow the situation continues to deteriorate as a result of ''our'' collective indifference.    Last year I remember ''mourning'' the situation inside Syria as we marked three years of the crisis. I remember that leaders from all around the world expressed their sorrow, outrage and declared things would change.    Too often those declarations have proved to be nothing more than empty words. Too often those with the power to make a change have looked the other way while declaring that solving a problem like Syria is simply too difficult.    Last week marks fours years on since the crisis began and the truly worrying thing is that at the current rate we are not even close to its nadir.    Individually we may not be able to change the course of this war and how it ends, but we do have some power over the here and now.    Today we can put an end to the excuses. We can demand a dramatic increase in leadership from key governments, we can demand that they push warring parties towards peace, that humanitarian access improves and that the delivery of aid to save lives and protect children''s futures through education is guaranteed.    If we don''t millions more heartbreaking stories will come into existence and one year from now we will find ourselves lamenting yet again another tragic anniversary marked by bloodshed and hopelessness.    On 31 March, the international community will meet in Kuwait at an aid pledging conference. This will decide the fate of children like Marwan.    This aid could help feed families, rebuild schools, increase access to clean water and provide healthcare. For children like Marwan, this is the aid they urgently need.    * *This piece was authored by a staff member from inside Syria, all names have been changed to protect identities.    http://www.savethechildren.net/article/aid-agencies-give-un-security-council-fail-grade-syria    Four years of armed conflict, economic disintegration and social fragmentation in Syria have hollowed out its population by 15 percent, forced some 10 million people to flee their homes and reduced life expectancy by two decades – from nearly 76 years of age to 56 – according to a United Nations-backed report released today on the “catastrophic” impact of the conflict.    “While crushing the aspirations of the Syrian people and their ability to build and form institutions that can restore human security and respect human dignity and rights, the armed conflict has depleted the capital and wealth of the country,” according to the Syria: Alienation and Violence, Impact of the Syria Crisis Report, produced by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).    “Measured in terms of human development capacity and choices, the [Human Development Index] HDI value of Syria degraded by 32.6 per cent since 2010, falling from just below a middle ranking position to 173rd position of 187 countries,” it said.    Syria has become a country of poor people, with an estimated 4 in every 5 Syrians now living in poverty – 30 percent of the population having descended into abject poverty, according to the report.    The report details the tragic context facing all people in Syria, including the lives of Palestine refugees that have not been spared the trauma, UNRWA says, noting that the agency delivers humanitarian aid to 460,000 refugees who are wholly dependent on it to help them meet minimum daily needs.    During the last four years, more than 10 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes and neighbourhoods because of violence, fear, intimidation and homelessness.    “The population of Syria was hollowed out by 15 percent as 3.33 million Syrians fled as refugees to other countries, together with a 1.55 million persons who migrated to find work and a safer life elsewhere,” the report explained. “Within the remaining population of Syria, some 6.80 million people had been internally displaced.”    The report drew attention to “the appalling loss of life,” as the death toll increased in the past year reached 210,000 persons. And together with the 840,000 people who were wounded, 6 per cent of the population were killed, maimed or wounded during the conflict, it said.    “Equally horrendous is the silent disaster that has reduced life expectancy at birth from 75.9 years in 2010 to an estimated 55.7 years at the end of 2014, reducing longevity and life expectancy by 27 per cent,” the report noted.    In the midst of this social disintegration and economic degradation, the education, health and social welfare systems are in a state of collapse..    http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50291#.VP-j8o6pX-Z    26 February 2015    Syria’s war continues ‘unabated and with total impunity,’ Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-Wha Kang tells UN Security Council.    In a briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria, two senior United Nations relief officials warned today that as the conflict enters its fifth year, the violence and brutality continue unabated and with total impunity.    Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-Wha Kang told the 15-member body that parties to the conflict continue to kill civilians and target critical infrastructure which condemn people to unnecessary suffering.    “Every month we report on the same violations. The numbers change, but the pattern remains the same. The parties to the conflict continue to act with impunity: killing and abducting civilians; denying access; removing vital supplies from convoys. This pattern must be broken,” Ms. Kang stressed.    Over 2 million people in Aleppo and Dar’a Governorates have been affected by wilful denial of water and electricity by parties to the conflict this month. Of the 212,000 people who are besieged, in conditions that deteriorate every day, only 304 were reached with food in January.    In other areas where conditions deteriorate every day, parties to the conflict severely restrict access to those in need. In Raqqa and Deir ez Zor, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has closed down the offices of several aid organisations, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.    “Some 600,000 people have not received food assistance in these governorates since last December. The sick or wounded often have nowhere safe to get treatment,” said Ms. Kang.    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has succeeded in sending life-saving medicine and medical supplies from Damascus to rural Aleppo for some 65,000 treatments but many of the surgical items including midwifery and reproductive kits were removed by Government security personnel at one of the checkpoints.    The Council must do everything in its power to hold parties accountable and ensure that aid is delivered to people in need. Humanitarian organizations operating in besieged Syria and in neighbouring countries continue to reach millions of people every month. In January, some 3.4 million people were reached with food assistance while hundreds of thousands were also reached with medicines, household items and other supplies.    “But it is not enough. More effort must be made to de-escalate the violence, protect and enable humanitarian organisations to give more support,” the Special Coordinator said, emphasising the need to secure the freeze in fighting in some parties of Aleppo so that humanitarian agencies can deliver food, remove debris and get children back into school.    OCHA’s response cannot keep up with the needs of Syria’s people because there is simply not enough funding. By the end of last year, the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan for 2014 was just 48 per cent funded.    Lack of funding has already forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce rations by 30 per cent. And for every million dollars that WHO cannot raise in Syria, some 227,000 people lose vital health services. And unless urgent funding is received before May 2015, a million children will not be able to access education.    Ms. Kang said she looked forward to the next pledging conference to be held on 31 March in Kuwait, expressing hope that the funds acquired there will make a difference on the ground.    Echoing that sentiment, UNHCR head António Guterres, said that the Kuwait III conference will play a determining role in stabilizing the situation in the refugee hosting countries because international support has been far from keeping pace with the magnitude of needs.    The Syrian refugee crisis has overwhelmed existing response capacities with 3.8 million registered in neighbouring countries. In Lebanon and Jordan, these populations have grown exponentially and Turkey is now the biggest refugee-hosting country in the world.    “The continued growth in displacement is staggering. And the nature of the refugee crisis is changing. As the level of despair rises, the available protection space shrinks, we are approaching a dangerous turning point,” Mr. Guterres warned.    Refugee resources are depleted and living conditions are drastically deteriorating. Host communities are severely overstretched. And the refugee influx has heavily impacted the economies and societies of Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Iraq in particular, overwhelming resources.    http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50194#.VO_7ryypX-Y    Dec 19, 2014    One million people have been wounded during Syria"s civil war and diseases are spreading as regular supplies of medicine fail to reach patients, the World Health Organisation"s Syria representative said.    A plunge in vaccination rates from 90 percent before the war to 52 percent this year and contaminated water have added to the woes, allowing typhoid and hepatitis to advance, Elizabeth Hoff said in an interview late on Thursday.    More than 200,000 people have been killed in Syria"s conflict, which began in March 2011 with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad and spiralled into civil war after a crackdown by his security forces.    "In Syria, they have a million people injured as a direct result of the war. You can see it in the country when you travel around. You see a lot of amputees," said Hoff. "This is the biggest problem."    She said a collapsed health system, where over half of public hospitals are out of service, has meant that treatments for diseases and injuries are irregular.    Hoff said that Assad"s government -- which demands to sign off on aid convoys -- is still blocking surgical supplies, such as bandages and syringes, from entering rebel-held areas.    Aid workers say Damascus argues that the equipment would be used to help insurgents.    "What has been a problem is the regularity of supply," she said. "The government approvals are sporadic."    More than 6,500 cases of typhoid were reported this year across Syria and 4,200 cases of measles, the deadliest disease for Syrian children, Hoff said.    There was just one reported case of polio, which can paralyse children within hours, in 2014 following a vaccination drive, but other new diseases appeared, including myiasis, a tropical disease spread by flies which is also known as screw-worm, with 10 cases seen in the outskirts of Damascus.    Syrian activists in the Eastern Ghouta district of Damascus said that tuberculosis was also spreading due to poor sanitary conditions and a government siege on the area, blocking aid.    The United Nations called on Thursday for more than $8.4 billion to help nearly 18 million people in need in Syria and across the region in 2015.    Hoff said that the WHO delivered more than 13.5 million treatments of lifesaving medicines and medical supplies in 2014, up nearly threefold from the year before.    But the problems were growing at an even faster pace, Hoff said, with poor water access and deepening poverty worsening the health crisis: "The needs are not possible to believe."    http://www.redforsyria.org/ http://www.unicef.org/media/media_81172.html http://childrenofsyria.info/winter/ http://www.unocha.org/syria http://handicap-international.ca/en/syria-one-million-injured-a-mutilated-future http://www.icrcproject.org/app/syria-women/ http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/msf-four-years-syrian-conflict-medical-aid-paralysed-lack-access http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/failing-syria-assessing-impact-un-security-council-resolutions http://reliefweb.int/country/syr Visit the related web page
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