By Philippe Guiton, director of the Syria Crisis response for World Vision

Thursday, June 20, 2013 is World Refugee Day and humanitarians will be hard at work in Jordan’s north-eastern desert helping to build what will become the country’s largest refugee camp.

The scale of the Syrian refugee crisis is now so vast that our staff are in a race against the clock to lay 12 kilometres of piping and dig in 2,600 septic tanks, each the size of a small car.

This $300 million in additional humanitarian aid from the United States will increase food aid, medical care, clean water, and provide shelter and other relief supplies for families suffering in Syria and neighboring countries.

17 June 2013

Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

The Global Overview collates information from a range of sources and displays it in a manner that allows for quick comparison of different humanitarian crises.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Revised SHARP amounts to $1.4 billion to assist 6.8 million people inside Syria; $1 billion in unmet requirements until end 2013.

• At least 93,000 Syrians killed so far in the conflict, according to OHCHR.

• UN humanitarian agencies call for urgent access to affected populations in Rural Damascus.
  Cross-line inter-agency convoys bring aid to 215,000 people in Dar’a and Ar-Rastan; more than 1.2 million reached since end of January.

Highlights

The violence inside Syria continues to escalate with UNOHCHR reporting that the number of deaths due to the conflict has now reached over 93,000 since March 2011. Of these, 6,561 are children, of whom 1,729 are under the age of 10. During the reporting period, the UN launched a revised appeal for US$4.4bn for its response to the crisis. UNICEF requires some $470 million to the end of December to maintain its lifesaving support to the children of Syria.

Half the population of Syria will need humanitarian help by the end of the year, according to a worrying new assessment by the UN.

New forecasts predict ten million people will face hardship due to the civil war which after three years still shows no sign of abating.

Currently 1.64 million Syrians are refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey but the UN estimates that figure will double.

Unmet needs

The gloomy assessment comes as the UN launches the biggest emergency appeal in its history.

Contact: Eileen O’Gorman
Phone: (o) 480-609-7759 (c) 314 -323-4979
Email: eogorman@fh.org

“The focus of FH is to strengthen local churches to be a blessing to those suffering…”

PHOENIX (June 7, 2013) – As violence continues in Syria and the refugee population in Jordan and Lebanon grows, Food for the Hungry (FH) is responding with food aid and provision of other services for the well-being of women and children.