SOS Children’s Villages is stepping up its support for the besieged city of Aleppo, with plans to open a new child friendly space (CFS) and to expand food provision for displaced children and families.
SOS Children's Villages Syria has also opened its Aleppo CFS and an Interim Care Centre for families of staff members who have had to flee their homes, as well as displaced families who are caring for children who lost parents or are separated from their families because of war.
Both centres were closed in April when an upsurge in fighting made it too dangerous to remain open. All of the children being cared for at the Interim Care Centre in Aleppo were relocated to SOS centres in Damascus in mid-April.
“The terrible situation in Aleppo is worsening by the hour”, said Alia Al-Dalli, International Director of the Middle East and North Africa Region. “Children and families are trapped on the front line of the war and are in desperate need of supplies, shelter and food.
“SOS Children’s Villages staff in Syria are doing all that they can to help as many civilians as they can,” Ms Al-Dalli said. “The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis is immense and the conditions are exceptionally dangerous. We are extremely concerned for the safety of children who are caught up in the escalating violence in Aleppo.”
SOS Children's Villages Syria will be working in the coming days to provide water-delivery trucks and generators to help serve neighbourhoods in Aleppo and surrounding areas. We hope to reach 700 families with 50,000 litres of water daily, helping an estimated 3,500 people per day.
SOS Children's Villages Syria is partnering with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to provide meals to 2,500 internally displaced families with children – or more than 12,000 people. In addition, some of these families along with those in other areas will receive non-food items.
In addition, the SOS emergency response programme is working to set up a safe place for mothers to breast feed their babies. Hygiene goods, dry food and baby milk, nappies and clothing for small children will also be distributed.
The programmes for mothers and the CFS will be located in a safe area outside the current battlegrounds in Aleppo.
SOS Children’s Villages has worked in Syria for more than 30 years. With civil war raging, an Emergency Response Programme (ERP) was launched in 2013 to provide a range of assistance to children and families. The support has evolved in the years since the ERP was set up, with a current focus on educational support, care centres for children who have been separated from their families, and CFSs.
Read more news about our work in Syria.