Like so many children around the world, those in Syria should be looking forward to the new school term. Instead too many are being forced to flee their homes in search of safety as the conflict deteriorates. More than four million children are now in need of aid in what has become the largest humanitarian operation in history, with one million children now seeking refuge in neighbouring countries – the equivalent to all the children in Wales being uprooted and left homeless.
Despite the political attention on Syria, the humanitarian response to this crisis and the children caught up in it is at risk of being forgotten. In Syria itself, almost one out of every five schools has been damaged, destroyed or is being used as a shelter for displaced families. Across the region, children are living in make-shift shelters and camps, where they are at increased risk of disease.
Unicef – the world’s leading children’s organisation – is working day and night for the children of Syria to ensure they can be protected from harm and disease and can continue to learn. Unicef is providing children in Syria and refugee children in five neighbouring countries – Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt – with safe drinking water, essential vaccines, education, and psychological support for trauma. But it is struggling to reach all the children that need help.
“This is not their conflict, yet children bear the brunt of the suffering. We are calling on you to help, so that a generation of Syrian children are not simply “lost”. You can donate to ensure that they receive vaccines to keep disease at bay, continue learning and receive the psychological support they need to help them come to terms with the horrors they have witnessed.
The children caught up in this conflict are innocent victims who have had the misfortune of growing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. We can help provide them with some sense of hope in the most impossible of circumstances. As the UK’s children go back to school, we urge you to remember Syria’s children and do something – however small – to help mend their shattered childhoods.”
Signed,
Duncan Bannatyne
David Beckham
Martin Bell
Charley Boorman
Keeley Hawes
Tom Hiddleston
Sir Chris Hoy
Eddie Izzard
Jemima Khan
Ewan McGregor
James Nesbitt
Lord David Puttnam
Simon Reeve
Michael Sheen
Dan Snow
Trudie Styler
David Walliams
Robbie Williams
