Aiding Starving Children in Syria

Written by: Nelly Elayoubi, SOS Communications Assistant

The months-long siege of the Syrian town of Madaya was lifted briefly last month, allowing access for humanitarian aid convoys to deliver food and other necessities to starving and malnourished children and families.

SOS Children’s Villages was part of a convoy made up other relief organizations that gained access to Madaya, delivering much needed aid supplies. The town of 42,000 people was one of three in Syria that have been trapped and unable to leave for many months.  

Abeer Pamuk, of SOS Children's Villages in Syria, was among the aid workers who gained access to the cut-off community. None of the children she met with looked healthy, she said.

“They all looked pale and skinny. They could barely talk or walk. Their teeth are black, their gums are bleeding, and they have lots of health problems with their skin, hair, nails, teeth,” Pamuk said.

So desperate is the situation, she said, that parents have resorted to giving their children sleeping pills as a means to ward off their hunger, eating grass, and some reported eating cats in order to survive.

"Their parents had nothing to feed them. So they just chose to let them sleep and forget about their hunger," she said in a statement.

Pamuk was one of four members of the SOS team that was part of an initial convoy of relief groups that pursued entry into Madaya on January 11. Three days later, the convoy was granted access through a checkpoint, to conduct a rapid assessment and identify unaccompanied children and others in need of immediate help.

SOS Children’s Villages is working hard to get the unaccompanied children or children who have been separated from their families, out of Madaya to care centres located outside of Syria’s capital, Damascus.

“I want to see the day when Syrian children run for fun, and never again have to worry about hunger,” Pamuk recently told The Guardian.

A “Changed Village”

Close to the border with Lebanon, Madaya was renowned as a mountain resort destination. Now, Pamuk said, the area is desolate, and the str eets remain empty.

“There is almost nobody in the streets, shops are all closed. You would feel, when you first enter it, that there are no people living there, but then, when you knock on the doors, and go inside, you find people.” Pamuk.

Deliberate Starvation of Civilians Constitutes War Crime

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had harsh words for all sides engaged in the conflict, in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly. To use food as a weapon of war was, he said, constitutes a war crime.

“The town has been the victim of deliberate starvation. Let me be clear: the use of food as a weapon of war is a war crime. All sides, including the Syrian Government, which has the primary responsibility to protect Syrians — are committing atrocious acts prohibited under international humanitarian law,” he said.

“Combatants have showed complete and utter disregard for Madaya's people,” Ki-moon added.

The Secretary General said the United Nations and its humanitarian partners are able to deliver food to only 1 per cent of the 400,000 people under siege in Syria, down from 5 per cent just over a year ago.

UNICEF has confirmed cases of severe malnutrition of children in the blockaded town of Madaya. Local relief workers, meanwhile, have reported 32 –starvation-related deaths in the last month.

There is a dire need for food and other supplies in Madaya, and across the entire country. UNICEF estimates about 7.6 million children in need of humanitarian assistance, with 2.7 million children not able to attend school.

Meanwhile, Alia Al-Dalli, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Region for SOS Children’s Villages, called on all parties, and the Syrian government to fulfill its obligations to protect children and their access to nutrition, healthcare, shelter and education, as prescribed in the UN Convention on the Rights of Child, to which Syria ratified in 1993.

“While we acknowledge the profound human suffering of all Syrians through nearly five years of conflict, children are among the most vulnerable to the physical, social and emotional trauma of wartime deprivation,” Al-Dalli said in a statement.

Al-Dalli further called for the safe evacuation of at-risk children and those without parental care, out of Madaya and other besieged towns of Foah and Kefraya, to child-safe centre, such as that of SOS Children’s Villages in Syria. She also called for “safe and unfettered access” of humanitarian aid workers to the three towns, to properly assist children who are malnourished, at risk and without care, as well as the greater population suffering within the blockaded areas.

How to Help

The need is urgent, and you can help. SOS Children’s Villages has set up a Refugee Crisis Fund, to assist children fleeing conflict by providing child-safe spaces, support, and aid. Your donation will be matched by the Government of Canada, from now until the February 29, 2016.

Although child sponsorship is not available at this time for children in Syria, support can be directed toward neighbouring countries Lebanon and Jordan. Of the more than 4 million refugees registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, women and children make up three-quarters of the refugee population. To help make a difference, please click here.