Syrian schoolchildren are being trained in evacuation

The battles in Syria claim civilian lives on an everyday basis, and not least the children are exposed. The difference between life and death can be a matter of seconds, and the Danish Refugee Council together with the Syrian Red Crescent train schoolchildren on how to do a quick evacuation.

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been working together with the Syrian Ministry of Education and Syrian Red Crescent in Syria since 2008.

”We’ve changed our work because of the increasing civil war in Syria – and as the situation is today, we have to focus more on security training as well as traditional education. The schoolchildren are vulnerable, and we are training both them and their teachers in doing quick evacuations,” says Charlotte Kjørup, country director for DRC Syria. She continues: “the training at the Eben Rushed School in Damascus will be followed by similar trainings in other parts of Syria.”

DRC is among the few international humanitarian organizations in Syria and works both in Homs, Dara’a, Damascus, Deir e Zor and Aleppo. The largest tasks are the distribution of relief aid and the preparing of public buildings that are to accommodate displaced people.

”The situation in Syria is critical, and we must take on new tasks, whenever we see a need. The overall focus of our effort is to deliver relief aid and security to the Syrian displaced people,“ says Charlotte Kjørup

More than 1 million people have fled Syria and more than 2 million are internally displaced in the country. All together more than 4 million people in Syria are dependent on relief aid

Danish Refugee Council was among the first international organizations who gained access to distributing aid during the current conflict. For the time being DRC is delivering aid to hundreds of thousands displaced in Syria and the surrounding countries.