Give Support to 800 Syrian Refugee Families

Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe helps Syrian refugees in several countries, also in Turkey.
With 1.9 million refugees, Turkey is currently the country that has taken up the most refugees from Syria, and from Iraq, mostly displaced persons. Above all, the majority of the refugees live outside the camps. They have a hard everyday live and suffer from food shortages, lack of labor and prospects. In addition to the daily struggle traumatic memories of the expulsions and escape are coming up. We help those people, who live outside the official refugee camps and who are vulnerable and especially threatened by poverty.
Approximately one third of refugee families are suffering from the death of at least one relative. In addition to the traumatic experiences they had in their home and on the run, this is another reason for the urgent need for psychosocial assistance. Half of all refugees are children and most of them suffer partly severe trauma.
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe has been active since 2012 in cooperation with the Partner Support to Life (STL) on site. The first emergency relief projects were addressed to Syrian refugees in the provinces of Hatay, Kilis and Gaziantep and provided them with food parcels, hygiene supplies and blankets. For subsequent projects a voucher system was introduced that distributes coupons for independent retailers of food and hygiene items every month. After the influx of refugees from Kobane (Syria) in September 2014, the DKH with STL supplied about 500 Kurdish families from Kobane and Yezidi families from northern Iraq with hygiene kits, cooking utensils, food parcels and blankets. The host communities are included in the help: In community centers kindergartens are established for all groups.
Even the emergency aid program in the provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep and Sanlurfa and the cities Dyarbakir and Batman will be continued also with funds from the Federal Foreign Office and the European Union this year. Thus, the refugees living outside the camps they are supplied with debit cards. Without the right to work the so-called "cash assistance" is in many cases a lifesaver, especially for the refugees, who are poor, socially disadvantaged poor and socially and have little to eat. This type of support helps the refugees to gain a stable and independent live, because they can buy things in a self-sufficient way according to they urgent needs.
Thank you for your support of this important work!

We thank you so much for your previous support. With your donations we can give out food vouchers via our partners and other urgent help:
Orthodox Christian Charities internationally (IOCC) provide for over 10 years emergency aid for refugees, internally displaced and vulnerable populations in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. IOCC has long established relationships with the governments of the two host countries. Multilateral donors such as UNICEF and OCHA and other international donors such as ACT Alliance, in whose network IOCC itself is a member, promoted several utilities of IOCC.
The aid provided by the partner organizations in Syria are focused on the most devastated areas such as Homs, Damascus, Aleppo or Hassakeh. Where assistance can be exactly made depends on the current security situation.

Due to the increased dominance of the IS-militia, the local partner organizations can’t currently work in Idlib, Rakka or Deit az-Zor.

In implementing the projects, the precise local knowledge is necessary. Since both partners already have very close contact with the local communities while working, they know exactly where and when they can move safely.
The partner organizations register needy families and provide them with food, hygiene parcels, clothes, blankets and kitchenware to make everyday life easier. There, where it’s possible children are getting support for school fees, teaching materials, school uniforms, teaching materials and transportation. In addition, some families receive support to rent flats for a limited period. To avoid health risks, the partner organization clarify also about dangers of gastrointestinal infections and distributed water filters. All products are sourced locally.

With so-called "cash-for-work activities" Syrians receive also temporarily a new source of income. Women in particular are taken into work. They sewed for example last year warm clothes for toddlers and school uniforms.
This is a beginning. More is to do. We are happy, when you support us furthermore.

Thanks to our donors, we can help families, who are escaping from civil war in Syria - families like Maissa and Wael:

Maissa (25) and Wael (27) fled in January from Daraa. There, in the south-west of Syria, the protests have begun two years ago. Wael had just finished his law studies. Finding work in its field is currently impossible in Syria. Instead, the Syrian army knocked at him to feed him for military service. Without much thinking about, he fled with his pregnant wife and one year old son in the direction of Jordan.
At the border crossing, the family was caught up along with other newcomers by Jordanian border officials and taken directly to Zaatari refugee camp. At this time several 10,000 refugees at once came to the camp. The winter in the desert just begun.

Maissa and Wael fought against the mud, which was flushed from the rain into the tents, against the cold nights and against the frequently recurring fever of the one year old Muhammad. During this time they often deliberated to go back. Could life in Syria worse, than the situation without goods and chattels here in the dessert?
The families of Maissa and Wael are still living in Syria. Every two days they call to their families, if the lines allow it. "Every day we worry about, whether our parents and siblings are doing well, but we don't want, that they are coming here into the desert," said Maissa.

Toilets and kitchens are shared by the family with 100 other refugees. Maissa misses diapers for her son and clean water for drinking and washing. When asked what she misses most, she replied without hesitation: "My Family".
In a few weeks Mohammed gets a sister or a brother. Maissa was going to have a check-up at the camp. The family hopes then to be able to move into a residential container. To develop other perspectives is currently difficult for the family. Her future she sees in Syria. Sooner than rather later they want to return.

Links:

• Give food vouchers to 150 Syrian refugee families