Syrian Refugee Relief Fund

COVID-19 has now been reported in more than 200 countries and territories, and there are more than 5.5 million confirmed cases of the virus around the world. More than 80% of the world’s refugees are hosted in low-to-middle-income countries, where many healthcare systems lack the capabilities to combat the virus on such a large scale. Additionally, typical accommodations in refugee camps make it nearly impossible for individuals to practice social distancing or quarantining. In the words of one nonprofit leader from Jafra Foundation for Relief and Youth Development, 

“For refugees, the virus has not only exacerbated existing vulnerabilities, but it has also created new ones.”

Disaster specialists at GlobalGiving recognize that this incredibly challenging time for refugees warrants a special response—so, with help from your generous donation, we made a round of emergency grants to 10 organizations in the Syrian Refugee Relief Fund. 

Here’s a highlight of how organizations are using emergency COVID-19 grants to keep refugee families safe and healthy during the crisis:

• Movement on The Ground: As one of the few organizations with permission to operate in Lesvos as well as Samos, Greece, Movement on The Ground is promoting proper hygiene and providing refugees with critical information on how to avoid infection of COVID-19.
• Jafra Foundation for Relief and Youth Development: Jafra has focused its response on disinfecting camps and gatherings in Syria and Lebanon, raising awareness on COVID-19 prevention and precaution methods, and distributing sewn face masks and much-needed food items.
• Near East Foundation (NEF): Members at NEF are on the ground in Syria coordinating with local health committees to provide COVID-19 education to local residents at two community livelihood centers. In Jordan and Lebanon, NEF staff is continuing to provide entrepreneurs with support for their small businesses and income-generating activities, despite many refugees already losing their jobs.
• Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM): Nonprofit leaders at ASAM are providing critical counseling services and awareness-raising activities to ensure that refugees can cope with the added stress of the virus as well as take the necessary protective measures to prevent further outbreaks.

We are incredibly grateful for your support—it is your generosity that is enabling us to partner with local organizations serving the most vulnerable in their communities. To learn more about GlobalGiving’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, see this letter from GlobalGiving CEO, Alix Guerrier.

Stay safe and take care,

Claire + the GlobalGiving Team

Women make up around 50 percent of all refugees. In a refugee crisis, one in five women of childbearing age is likely to be pregnant. When a pregnant woman suddenly loses medical support and must endure threats of trauma, malnutrition, and disease, she and her baby are put in serious danger.

Friends of UNFPA, Inc, one GlobalGiving partner you are supporting with your generous donation, is providing hope for pregnant women and their babies. They are working to make motherhood safer for refugees by working with local governments and other nonprofit partners to deliver birth kits with essential health items to women without access to a facility, as well as equip rural medical facilities with medical and medication.

Razia is one woman from Pakistan whose life was impacted by UNFPA. Razia was only 13 years old when her family married her off. She quickly became pregnant, and her husband tragically died when she was six months along. 

Razia, like many young mothers, had pregnancy complications. She was in labor for four days before her daughter was stillborn, and she also developed obstetric fistula—a preventable medical issue that is overwhelmingly faced by the most disadvantaged women and is a major cause of maternal mortality. Not only did the fistula cause Razia immense pain, but it also forced her to endure infections as well as shame and social isolation. 

"People would either avoid me or just make fun of me," Razia said. "I never felt clean."

Thankfully, with help from UNFPA, Razia obtained treatment for her fistula and is now living a healthy life, including getting remarried and having her own child! Now, she works with UNFPA to bring treatment to other women suffering from fistula. 

This is just one story of life-change our courageous partners are enabling, with help from your generosity. To see more examples of what your donations provide and read the most recent stories from the field, check out our Syrian Refugee Relief Fund partners directly. Thank you again for your incredible support and for making stories like Razia’s possible.

With gratitude,

Claire + the GlobalGiving Team

Original story by UNFPA Communications Team

After fighting broke out in northeast Syria last month, conditions for Syrian refugees are as critical as ever. An estimated 180,000 individuals, including 80,000 children, had to flee their homes and communities. The United Nations reports that vital infrastructure has been damaged in the fighting, including clean water sources. Additionally, the onset of colder weather heightens displaced Syrians’ need to escape the violence even further.

We are so grateful for your support at such a crucial moment for Syrian refugees. Your support continues to make a difference to our nonprofit leaders and the communities they serve.

For example, your support is helping our nonprofit partners provide immediate relief to those in need of food, water, shelter, and other basic necessities.

• Since May, CARE has reached more than 70,000 individuals in northwest Syria with emergency supplies, such as hygiene kits, food rations, cash assistance, mobile health clinics, and clean drinking water. Despite some of their health centers sustaining damage from nearby bombings earlier in the year, CARE is continuing to coordinate with local partners to best assist the most vulnerable survivors, especially women and girls. 
• In the past year, Peace Winds America has constructed more than 800 durable shelters for Syrian refugees that have fled to northern Iraq (Kurdistan). They partner with the community in this work by training and employing refugees throughout the construction process, offering them the opportunity to gain much-needed income. Peace Winds is also distributing food kits to families, along with water and clothes.

Additionally, your generosity is helping our partners provide important psychosocial support needed to help refugee children begin to heal from the traumas of war and displacement.

• The UN Refugee Agency reports that more than half of all refugees are under the age of 18. Our partner, Emfasis Foundation, created a PhotoTherapy project in Greece to serve this growing population and provide them with much-needed psychosocial support. Through Emfasis’s work, refugee children have a safe place to express their thoughts and emotions, process their trauma, and find community.
• International Association for Human Values (IAHV) is responding to high rates of mental illness in refugee children by providing a variety of programs tailored to meet children’s specific mental and emotional needs. So far, IAHV has served 18,000 children through integrated trauma-relief, healing, and resilience workshops. They have also provided 400 children at risk of recruitment by armed groups with in-depth training in human values and non-violent empowerment.

Watch your inbox in the coming months for more stories of how your donations are making the world a brighter place. Thank you again for your generous support of the Syrian Refugee Relief Fund that makes a community-focused response to the ongoing refugee crisis possible. 

Warmly,

Claire Hilton + the GlobalGiving Team

Since 2011, nearly 6 million individuals have left their homes in Syria to seek shelter in surrounding countries. Thanks to the generous support of nearly 10,000 GlobalGivers, we have been able to raise $1,857,797 to help families gain access to vital resources in the face of what many call the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lifetime.

Lebanon hosts more than a million of these displaced individuals. Approximately 70 percent of refugees in Lebanon live below the poverty line and typically share undersized, overcrowded spaces with other refugee families. Below is an update on the work our partners are doing specifically to engage Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Half of the refugees residing in Lebanon are under the age of 18. As a result of poverty and discrimination, most of the children lack access to any type of schooling. With your support, the Insan Association is providing children ages four to 16 with access to education at Insan School as well as psycho-social support. Project Leader Lala S. Arabian says their work at the Insan School also “aims to help the children acquire the necessary skills to surmount the obstacles to their integration in the Lebanese school system and, consequently, into Lebanese society.” Likewise, the school provides necessary social support to Syrian refugee children and their families. 

Of all the challenges refugees face, women and girls have some particularly difficult obstacles to overcome. According to our nonprofit partner Developmental Action without Borders/Naba'a, the lack of access to proper clothing, underwear, and feminine hygiene products not only leads to infections, but also to discrimination. Since women lack rights to housing, they are wholly dependent on their family for security, even in situations of domestic and gender-based violence. As an immediate response to these issues, Naba’a’s project, Dignity for displaced women and girls in Lebanon, is providing much-needed clothing and sanitary items. 

For a long-term solution, Naba’a recognizes the important role education plays in an individual’s ongoing safety and independence. Currently, Naba’a is addressing this need through creating a girl’s advocacy committee that is working with the Lebanese municipalities to establish free and compulsory primary education. Naba’a has also been able to host 220 educational and awareness workshops for adolescent girls on topics such as decision making, the importance of education, and awareness of particular risks like domestic and sexual abuse. Lastly, Naba’a was able to target 986 Syrian refugee women with health services and drop-in clinics, as well as sensitizing nearly 10,000 individuals across Lebanon on sexual and gender-based violence.

The Syrian Refugee Relief Fund has also been instrumental in providing support to our partners assisting Syrian refugees in Greece. IsraAID is working in Sindo, a suburb of Thessaloniki that hosts a large Syrian refugee camp. IsraAID recently celebrated the one year anniversary of the opening of the Sindo Community Center which was created to provide holistic care and educational services for refugees. The SCC not only provides basic care items such as hygiene kits and heating packages, but also provides professional development courses that include English and Greek classes, skill-building sessions, and IT training. IsraAID reports that more than 70 refugees take advantage of the center’s workshops each day.

Thank you for generously supporting community-led relief efforts that assist individuals affected by the Syrian refugee crisis. In the upcoming months, we'll continue reporting on how your donations are helping to provide relief for vulnerable Syrian refugees.

With Gratitude,

Claire Hilton + the GlobalGiving Team

In a briefing to the United Nations Security Council late last month, leaders from UNOCHA reported that "the scale of the humanitarian challenges facing the people of Syria remains staggering by any measure. International support for efforts to respond to the needs of millions of Syrians remains critical." The numbers bear this out: More than half of all Syrians have been displaced by war. 5.6 million have fled the country as refugees, and another 6.6 million have been forced to leave their homes behind but remain in Syria.

Your generous support has funded a wide range of vetted GlobalGiving nonprofit partners throughout the Mediterranean region who are providing support and relief to Syrian refugees, some of whom are now approaching nine years away from their homeland. Since our last update, we have new reports of progress to share from our partners assisting refugees in Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Serbia, and Turkey.

Personal safety is a serious concern for women refugees, whether they're living in dangerously overcrowded camps or unfamiliar cities where they may encounter hostility to their presence. The Starfish Foundation, based on the Greek island of Lesvos where roughly 7,000 refugees currently reside, is addressing this issue by offering self-defense classes tailored to Syrian women.  

We Need Books is launching a free, six-month Greek language program to help Syrian refugees living in Greece acclimate to their new home. Since the Greek government provides support for language learning to those who are under 18, We Need Books is focused on helping adults learn the language. The course is accompanied by monthly cultural activities to further help students become more comfortable in Greek society.

Turkey is home to 3.5 million Syrian refugees—more than any other country. More than 90% of refugees in Turkey are living in non-camp settlements where, due to their refugee status, maintaining a steady source of income can be extremely difficult. To address this common challenge, Turkish NGO Hayata Destek Dernegi is launching a new "Makers Shop" in their community center in Istanbul that will offer a six-month textile-making course, along with a stipend to supplement learners' incomes while they're developing their new skills.

Fleeing the violence in your homeland is a traumatic experience yet mental health services can be difficult to access for refugees. Three of our partners are working to help refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, and Serbia heal from the trauma they've endured.

With support from GlobalGivers, the International Humanistic Psychology Association is expanding their Refugee Women and Girl’s Safe Space project to additional sites throughout Jordan. The program provides trauma recovery treatment, medical health screenings, parenting skills workshops, and a range of activities designed to restore self-confidence and self-esteem.

At sites in northern Lebanon and northern Jordan, the International Association for Human Values has developed an integrated strategy for addressing the mental health needs of refugee children and the adults who care for and teach them. They're providing a series of workshops for youth focused on stress and trauma relief and resilience, as well as their Youth Anti-Violence and Peace Ambassadors program, which works to empower youth with the values, skills, and tools to become leaders in violence prevention and peacebuilding on their school campuses and in their communities.

And finally, in Serbia, local NGO Pomoc Deci is offering psychosocial support programs for Syrian refugees, along with programs aimed at educating refugee youth about how to avoid human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.  

Your donation and those of thousands of other GlobalGivers who've raised more than $1.84 million for our Syrian Refugee Relief Fund have helped make these stories of hope and progress possible. Thank you for your generosity, and for choosing to support community-led organizations responding to this ongoing crisis with your donation to this fund.

With gratitude,
Will + the GlobalGiving Team