March 7, 2023
News
When a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, 6th of February, ten-year-old Sham was in bed. "I was sleeping when our house collapsed to the ground," she recalls. The earthquake struck in Syria in places where up to 4 million people were already living in makeshift conditions. They fled here to escape the civil war, which enters its 13th year this March the 15th. What is life like in Syria today and how is Caritas Czech Republic helping people affected by the war and earthquake?
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Millions of people in need of humanitarian aid
"We lost everything in the earthquake. I escaped with a head injury, but my two younger brothers died," ten-year-old Sham continues her story. "I saw that my school was also destroyed," Sham adds wistfully.
Sham is one of more than 8 million children who have been hit hard by the war in Syria. Many of them have known nothing but war in their entire lives. Now they are suffering again because of the aftermath of the tragic earthquake. Before the earthquake, it was estimated that up to 15 million of Syria's 21 million people would need humanitarian aid this year. In addition, the earthquake affected 10 million locals in Syria alone.
Millions more have been displaced in the 12 years of war. There are 5.5 million Syrian refugees across the border in neighbouring countries, and 6.8 million people have fled to other places in Syria. Most of them to the northwest of the country, where Sham and her family live.
"The situation in northwest Syria was already very bad before the earthquake. This year marks 12 years since the start of the war in Syria and there are about 4 million people in the northwest of the country who are still in need of humanitarian assistance. Around 1.25 million of them have been surviving in tents and makeshift shelters for more than a decade," says Neda Khanji from Violet, local organisation with which Caritas Czech Republic has long been helping people in Syria.
After the earthquake, there are many more people affected in this way. People have lost their homes and their livelihoods. "It will take at least 3 years to rebuild the affected areas," says Neda Khanji.
Caritas Czech Republic has been helping with the reconstruction of areas affected by the civil war in Syria for a long time.
We support civil society in Syria
Caritas Czech Republic has been helping in Syria since 2013. Initially, we focused on providing immediate humanitarian aid. We have also supported the health sector and funded the operation of a mobile clinic operating in the north-west of the country and a clinic in Aleppo.
Humanitarian aid remains much needed in Syria. But after 12 years of war, it is clear that a shift towards sustainable development aid is inevitable. Local organisations themselves must be able to provide long-term assistance. And not just immediate humanitarian aid, but development aid as well.
Syrian NGOs in particular are indispensable in providing support to internally displaced people and host communities, and the number of such organisations in Syria has grown significantly in recent years. They want to be involved in the reconstruction of their country, but often lack the organisational capacity, the know-how to work in the humanitarian and development sectors, and the means to provide effective assistance. It is in these areas that Caritas Czech Republic is supporting Syrian NGOs. We provide them with mentoring and teach them how to run functional humanitarian and development projects.
"The crisis in Syria is protracted and the government structures are unstable. Therefore, it is the NGOs that should play a crucial role in holding the government and themselves accountable for long-term stability and peace," says George Jend from Caritas Czech Republic, who led a training for Syrian NGOs that focused on the link between humanitarian and development aid and what this means for the local organisations.
In cooperation with our partner organisation Violet, we have managed to create a network of NGO volunteers in Syria who have been trained to work in the humanitarian and development sector. Moreover, this cooperation proved its worth in the first hours after the devastating earthquake. Thanks to the cooperation established with a number of volunteers and the knowledge that the Syrian organisations gained from Caritas Czech Republic, their members and volunteers were able to immediately get involved in helping the people affected by the earthquake. As a result, aid reached many more people in a much shorter time.
We supported Syrians to start their own businesses
In Syria, as part of the country's development, we have also supported young Syrians to set up their own businesses and earn a living in a country where job opportunities are scarce. We have taught young people in Syria the basics of entrepreneurship and financial literacy. We also provided them with mentoring and start-up grants to get their small businesses up and running. One of the participants in our training was twenty-six-year-old Fares. ”My dream is to start a small shoemaking workshop, which will not only provide me with an income, but also help the people around me - I will be able to employ my neighbours who cannot find work and are in a similar situation to mine," says Fares with a grateful smile.
In total, thirty-one grants were distributed, allowing people to open tailoring workshops, cafés, poultry farms or even an electrical shop. In the months that followed, we provided supervision and mentoring to help people cope with the initial hurdles and make their businesses sustainable. Syria may be at war, but life goes on, and with it the efforts to develop the conflict-torn country.
We continue to help after the earthquake
In Syria, together with our partners, we started helping in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake. Our assistance continues. We are distributing food and hygiene kits, providing temporary shelter in heated tents and installing latrines with water supplies to prevent the spread of epidemics.
We are also helping people affected by the earthquake in Turkey. In both countries, more than 52,000 people have died in the tremors. According to the World Health Organisation, 26 million people are affected. Among them is the young Syrian Sham, who lost her siblings and her school in the earthquake, but hopes to be able to start studying soon again.
"I would love to continue my studies and become a doctor so I can help the injured," says Sham.
Caritas Czech Republic is working with local NGO Violet on the project "Supporting Civil Society in Northwest Syria" with funding from the European Commission. We are helping earthquake victims in Syria together with our partner organisations Violet and SARD.
