GOAL and the European Union provide vital assistance to earthquake survivors in northwest Syria – Syrian Arab Republic

[ad_1]

With the support of the European Union, Irish international humanitarian agency GOAL is reaching thousands of disaster-affected families in Idlib and northern Aleppo with humanitarian aid after the devastating earthquake in February.

After two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February, causing unprecedented levels of humanitarian needs, GOAL, in partnership with the European Union Humanitarian Aid, has expanded its emergency response in northwest Syria to reach affected communities in Idlib and northern Aleppo with life-saving assistance. .

Thanks to an additional €2 million in EU humanitarian funds for RELIEF, the organization’s emergency humanitarian response project in northwest Syria, GOAL has distributed one-off cash assistance to another 11,000 families affected by the disaster since February.

The EU’s support for the earthquake response has been critical to ensuring that our humanitarian partners can reach affected families in northwest Syria with much-needed relief. Cash assistance helps the most vulnerable with their most urgent needs. “The European Union remains committed to providing Syrians with humanitarian assistance at a time of unprecedented needs across the country,” said Luigi Pandolfi, Head of Humanitarian Aid Operations for the European Union in Syria.

In addition to scaling up emergency response activities in northwest Syria after the earthquakes, GOAL also increased protection support provided under the RELIEF project in partnership with the Syrian NGO Shafak. Gul and Shafak’s organization has succeeded in reaching hundreds of women who lost their families in the disaster by helping to mitigate the risks of gender-based violence they face.

“GOAL is grateful for the dynamic, long-standing humanitarian partnerships we have built over the past decade with the European Union and other international donors to implement aid programs in northwest Syria. Building on this dynamic, we immediately realigned our programmatic activities in Syria in response to the urgent needs that emerged after the earthquakes,” said Marie van Liechout, Executive Vice President and Director of External Affairs at GOAL.

It is estimated that more than 200,000 people in northwest Syria are left homeless after the February earthquake. About 4.5 million people live in this area, which extends along the northern governorates of Idlib and Aleppo, more than half of whom have been displaced from their towns due to the conflict that has been going on for 12 years.

The camps and informal tented camps hosting displaced families in northwest Syria were home to more than 1.8 million people before the earthquakes. These “sites of last resort” are stretching thinner as a result of earthquake-related displacements. Decreased availability of accommodation and services in tented settlements increases the risk of outbreaks of communicable diseases. Moreover, pre-existing protection needs have been exacerbated by the earthquakes, placing women and girls at increased risk of gender-based violence in reception centers and temporary shelters.

“Since the earthquakes, GOAL and other humanitarian agencies have worked around the clock to reach affected families with vital aid, but more international support is needed to ensure that vulnerable communities are not left behind,” said Jenny Zelensky, GOAL’s Country Director for the Syria Response. “In the face of new displacements caused by earthquakes and additional damage to local infrastructure, there is an urgent need for long-term solutions that can meet needs for shelter and clean water more reliably,” she added.

Thanks to the continued financial support from the European Union and other international humanitarian donors, since May 2022, within the framework of the third phase of the GOAL RELIEF project in northwest Syria:

More than 41,000 vulnerable families have received cash assistance to help them obtain heating fuel and other essential winter supplies during the coldest days of the year. 33 water stations have delivered clean water to more than 60,000 households. More than 24,000 families affected by the earthquakes were reached with cash assistance to help them meet their shelter, heating and other emergency needs immediately, while more than 4,400 families affected by flash floods in displacement camps and informal settlements in Idlib and northern Aleppo received cash assistance. cash assistance.

Under the €15.5 million project, which ended on May 1, GOAL has also reached more than 500 women who have survived or are at immediate risk of gender-based violence, providing them with first-line psychosocial support, cash assistance and referrals. to specialized centres. In partnership with the Syrian non-governmental organization Shafak.

In RELIEF IV, the next phase of the project, GOAL aims to provide cash assistance to more than 20,000 people affected by earthquakes and to rehabilitate a cluster of water and sewage systems that served a catchment area for more than 35,000 families before sustaining damage in the earthquakes. RELIEF IV will reach more than 650,000 people with emergency cash-based assistance, WASH, and protection support between May 2023 and May 2024.

finish

[ad_2]