By Mary Mendes

ERBIL, Iraq – Rahav picks up my blue UNICEF cap and gently fans me as the discomfort of the scorching heat becomes evident. The gesture is touching considering the long and tiring journey the 15-year-old had to take with her extended family of 26 to seek refuge from her war-torn country. They had just been allocated a tent in the temporary Kawergosk camp near Erbil, in northern Iraq.

Rahav arrived to the Kawaergosk camp a few nights ago. She had spent two nights in a tent by the Tigris River where thousands of Syrian nationals were waiting for the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq to open its border points with Syria. When the border was opened on 15 August, more

than 42,000 Syrian national came into Iraq in one week and the influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence at home continues.

Rahav spoke with pain about attacks on villages, the killings and the abductions. Her mother spoke about the lack of basic necessities. “Our stomachs have shrunk from the hunger,” she said. “We had no electricity, water or food.” Her aunt, Hajar, told me of the horror of war and the sorrow of losing her home. “We escaped with our lives. My boys were sitting around doing nothing. I hope I can find a school for them here.”

I asked Rahav how she feels now after the difficult times she has been through, her eyes lit up and told me she is glad she and her family found safety and refuge in Iraq’s Kurdistan

and now she’s anxious to see if she can go back to school soon.

On 15 August the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq re-opened its borders with Syria allowing around 42,000 Syrians to cross into Iraq in one week and the influx continues. The vast majority of those fleeing the continued violence in Syria are children, women and elderly persons.

The local government is transporting many of the refugees to temporary camp sites while two new refugee camps in Erbil and Sulayamniyah are being prepared. UNICEF, with its partners, is supporting the local authorities in meeting the urgent needs of these refugees at the border points and the temporary camp sites.

Children of Syria A UNICEF update

Syrian refugees flock to Iraq in record numbers

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Rahav and her family arrived in Erbil after two nights camping by the Tigris river waiting for the borders with northern Iraq to open. Around 42,000 Syrians crossed into Iraq in one week.

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Abeer

“My grandmother is still in Daraa and I cannot communicate with her too often. I miss her a lot.”

There are now 1 million registered child refugees from the Syria conflict. Abeer, 11, is one of them. She lives in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

Bashir

“All my friends and family are here with me in the camp, but I do miss my school and teachers,” says Bashir, 9,

who lives at Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

Like Bashir, nearly three-quarters of the now 1 million child refugees from the Syria conflict are under the age

of 11.

Faces of the children of Syria

Meet Aya, one in a million

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By Priyanka Pruthi

BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon – The devastating conflict in Syria has forced one million children to flee their homeland. Eight-year-old Aya is one of them.

Her smile is contagious. Her energy is infectious. She’s playful, she’s sporty, she’s talented.

Aya loves to talk, she loves to sing and she loves to learn. Every day, she takes lessons in reading and writing from her older sister Essaf in the makeshift tent in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – a valley crowded by a steady stream of Syrian refugees – that’s been their home for far too long.

“Aya is the only one of my children who hasn’t been educated, along with my daughter who is disabled. All the others were educated,” explains

Aya’s father Mohamed. As a matter of fact, Essaf has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

“I want to be a doctor so I can help children,” she says. “If they come to see me and they don’t have money, I will give them medicine, a prescription and an injection so they can get better.”

Aya was able to go to school in Lebanon briefly, but the transportation cost of US$20 per month was unaffordable for the family. Her brothers work in vegetable fields to help them get by, but they rely heavily on the food vouchers provided by UNHCR. Aya is left with no choice but to stay home.

Aya (left) plays with her sister in their makeshift tent.

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Children of Syria

By Iman Morooka

DAMASCUS, Syria – As I was first arriving in Damascus from Beirut by road, the only accessible route for UN staff travelling into the conflict-torn Syrian capital, I saw a huge plume of black smoke rising in the distance. My colleague, the UNICEF driver who picked me up from Beirut, said it was coming from the direction of Daraya. The name immediately rang a bell, as it was frequently mentioned in the news as a scene of intense fighting.

The ferocious shelling that pounds areas around Damascus is what you hear throughout the day, every day. While people have learned to cope with this reality, the tragic fact is that with each one of them, children and people are killed, maimed or displaced.

Some of UNICEF’s Syrian staffers have been directly affected by the crisis. Some have themselves been displaced from their homes. Even going to work every day is not without its risks, with increased targeting of check-points and key locations within Damascus.

“You can’t make any plans in life, because you simply don’t know what is going to happen,” one colleague said. There is a general feeling that people’s lives are being put on hold.

Surrounded by violence

As the conflict intensifies and spreads, UNICEF staff on the ground and dedicated partners struggle every day to reach children and families and to deliver life-saving supplies and services.

During my three-month mission in support of the Syrian crisis response, I travelled to Homs several times. I noticed check points moving locations, indicating that the boundaries of control were shifting. Concrete walls were erected to block streets, and neighborhoods

became more and more segregated. Heavy bombardment and fighting continues for control of the city’s neighborhoods, and many parts of the city are inaccessible.

Thinking of the children who have nowhere else to go, I cannot begin to imagine the level of fear and violence that they have to endure. In my encounters with displaced families in Homs and elsewhere, I came across stories of many children, and even adults, deeply traumatized by the violence they have witnessed.

Even in such conditions, I was also able to see the difference we’re making on the ground, and the progress made from month to month. Thanks to the scaling up of UNICEF programmes and strengthening of its field presence, more children are enrolled in education activities. We have also made progress in water and sanitation by providing access to services for IDPs, and large-scale infrastructure maintenance and repair of water systems. Child Friendly Spaces are reaching more children inside the country, among other areas of support.

We work with partners who put their own lives at risk every day, many of

whom work on a purely voluntary basis. They are constantly exposed to the threat of snipers, explosions and shelling.

If we don’t help, who else will?

We have also made some progress in delivering aid through cross-line operations to children and families in opposition-held areas, although it is difficult to know the exact number of people we have reached there, given the current challenges in monitoring and the fluid dividing lines between what is Government-controlled and what is opposition-controlled territory.

A Syrian colleague once said to me, “If we don’t support education, and if we don’t set up WASH facilities in IDP shelters, who else will?” While humanitarian assistance can’t fundamentally change the plight of Syrian children, the work that is being delivered by national and international humanitarian workers does indeed mean the difference between life and death to hundreds of thousands of children in Syria.

In Syria, a glimpse into the everyday dangers faced by humanitarian workers

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UNICEF’s assistance to the children of Syria is truly making a difference.

Refugees by numbers*

Lebanon 712,000

Jordan 515,000

Turkey 459,000

Iraq 160,000

Egypt 110,000

North Africa 14,000

Total 1,970,000(UNICEF estimates that 50% of these

refugees are children.)- Figures have been rounded

*UNHCR registered refugees and individuals awaiting

registration as of 29 August 2013

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Children of Syria

Syria

In Homs Governorate, particularly in Al Waer neighbourhood of Homs City and Talbeeseh Town, UNICEF and its partners have continued implementing water, sanitation and hygiene promotion activities benefiting more than 70,000 people.

Iraq

UNICEF teams are on the ground in the border areas, Kawergosk and Seleimaniyeh, to meet the needs of the Syrian families who have been entering Iraq in record numbers since mid-August.

Jordan

A Back to School campaign launched mid-August to encourage children to enroll in school reached over 20,000 households in camps and host communities.

Lebanon

Since May this year, more than 27,000 patients have been treated by UNICEF-supported mobile medical clinics in over 100 tented settlements.

Turkey

UNICEF distributed 80,000 pairs of shoes to children in Adiyaman camp. This will hopefully encourage children to attend school and provide them with additional protection as the weather gets colder.

By Melanie Sharpe

IRBID, Jordan – Every day is a struggle to survive for Noura and Muhammed and their six children, refugees of the continuing violence in Syria. None of their children have been attending school, and their 15-year-old son goes to work to help support the family.

UNICEF Director of Emergency Programs Ted Chaiban and Director of Communication Paloma Escudero visited the family recently in the small apartment they share in Irbid, northern Jordan.

The family spoke about their business being destroyed and having to leave their homeland with nothing. Now, like thousands of other Syrian families across the region, they face an uncertain future.

Breaking point

“More than 4 million Syrian children have been affected by this emergency. We must remember that each and every one of these children is an individual with a personal story of displacement, exposure to violence and horrific loss,” Mr. Chaiban said. “The global community cannot forget these children.”

The Syrian emergency has led to

one of the largest refugee crises the world has witnessed in the last 20 years. According to Government statistics, Jordan alone is host to around 600,000 Syrian refugees; UNICEF estimates that half of them are children.

With recent reports of intensified violence within Syria, the refugee crisis is only expected to get worse. Neighbouring countries are at the breaking point, and they can barely cope with the continued influx of refugees.

Since the crisis began, UNICEF and partners have been redoubling their efforts to provide millions of children with safe water, sanitation, life-saving immunizations, education, psychosocial support and health services.

Safe space

In Irbid, Noura and Muhammed’s children now attend a new UNICEF Child and Family Protective Place, which provides a safe environment for Syrian children to socialize and play – a small but important measure towards regaining a bit of their childhood.

UNICEF is working across the region to get children back to learning next month. In Syria, UNICEF estimates that one school building out of

every five cannot be used because it has been damaged, destroyed or is being used to shelter families displaced by the violence. If children are not given an education, they lose their childhood – and the society risks losing an entire generation.

“One thing above all gave me hope here – and that is these children have not yet lost all hope themselves. They dream of becoming doctors, engineers and teachers,” Ms. Escudero said. “But it’s a reminder, too, that we have to keep doing everything we can to support them.”

The longer the conflict continues, the more difficult it will be to heal the deep wounds within Syrian society. Reaching a political and peaceful resolution to the conflict is more critical than ever.

One family’s struggle, echoing across a region

Play and art help children deal better with the stress generated by the conflict in their home country.

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Briefs

29 August 2013

For more information:Juliette ToumaUNICEF Middle East and North Africa

jtouma@unicef.org menaro@unicef.org

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