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Today, we celebrate the remarkable achievements and commitment of humanitarian aid workers around the globe who have lost their lives serving those harder to reach. More than 460 aid workers lost their lives and 168 more died just this year. Syria is the third most dangerous place for them.
Throughout the Syria response, humanitarian workers have suffered from all kinds of challenges, from access constraints to violent conduct including abduction and death. In northwest Syria alone, a reported 7 humanitarian workers have lost their lives on duty since the beginning of 2021.
For the past 11 years, humanitarian workers have spared no efforts in delivering humanitarian aid to vulnerable people in Syria, helping them best cope with the dire humanitarian circumstances caused by the ongoing crisis while funding has significantly decreased limited the capacity of INGOs to respond to the same scale.
Humanitarian needs in Syria have also been on the rise for years stretching the response far beyond its limits. Humanitarian workers with their infallible determination continue to raise the bar in their attempt to provide aid to those who need it despite a magnitude of access challenges across all areas of Syria, Thousands of volunteers and professionals are dedicated to providing help every day. Women are also at the forefront of the response ensuring a gender-sensitive response to the surging needs affecting women and girls disproportionately.
There are more than 15,000 humanitarian workers in northwest Syria and one-third of them are women.
On World Humanitarian Day, the Northwest Syria NGO Forum would like to recognize the efforts all humanitarian workers delivering aid in Syria have made to bring hope to a crisis that seems not to end. We also call on all Syria crisis stakeholders to work towards facilitating their work and protecting them at all times.