Syria crisis, seven years on: see how UK aid is supporting Syrians — in pictures and VR

In March 2018, the conflict in Syria reached another grim milestone, as it entered its 7th year.

The numbers of people affected by the war are simply staggering.

Over 400,000 people have lost their lives. 6.3 million people have been displaced inside the country. 5 million have become refugees, the majority of them in Syria’s neighbouring countries — Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

The UK continues to lead international efforts to secure a lasting peace in Syria, but has also committed over £2.3 billion in humanitarian aid in response to the crisis since 2012, helping provide food, water and relief items to many of those in need inside the country and across the region. UK aid is saving lives in Syria, while also giving Syrian refugees a reason to remain close to home.

In February 2016, the UK co-hosted the Supporting Syria & the Region Conference in London. Since then, new training and job opportunities have been created for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and more than 75,000 additional children have been enrolled in schools in Lebanon and Jordan. New funding also significantly exceeded the $6 billion total promised for 2016 at the Syria Conference, with $8 billion allocated last year.

The progress that has been made demonstrates that the approach of the London Syria conference is working, even though huge challenges remain.

In the Azraq and Zaatari camps for Syrian refugees, in northern Jordan, a few miles from the Syrian border, life is still difficult — but UK aid is helping.

The Azraq camp is home to around 34,000 Syrian refugees, and Zaatari to around 80,000. Boreholes have been sunk into the desert bedrock in both camps and a water filtration and storage systems mean that clean, safe water is available on site and doesn’t have to be expensively trucked in.

UK support is also helping UNICEF and Mercy Corps run a series of ‘Makani’ (‘My Space) centres around the camp. These are safe spaces for children, which provide play facilities and classrooms for informal education, as well as helping recruit and train teachers. There are Makani centres across Jordan, and UK support extends across the country as well, helping both Syrian refugees and the Jordanian communities who are hosting them.

Further UK support to UNHCR is helping improve shelter conditions, and protection for the most vulnerable people.

Nemer and his family fled from Syria to Jordan in 2015. They’ve been in Azraq since then. Nemer explains what happened.

“On the 31st of October, at approximately 9 at night, our neighbourhood was shelled”, he says.

“Most of us were asleep at the time. We went out to see what was going on. We saw explosions. It was very frightening.

“Everyone decided that we had to leave right then.

“We took the children and we left with nothing. Without clothes, without anything. We fled towards the desert.

“We didn’t know what to expect when we first came here. We didn’t know this is how the accommodation was going to be.

“We received furniture, blankets, kitchen utensils, lights and a heater. We receive periodical packages of foodstuffs and some financial assistance as well.

“The most important thing is our children’s education. For the kids to go back to school and for the situation to get better. They can go to school every day here.

“We were in a really bad situation before. At least here we are safe.”

Nemer and his family have been supported by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and other agencies. The UK provides funding towards UNHCR’s work in Jordan to give shelter, relief items and protection services to those most in need. UK support to UNHCR Jordan in 2016/17 totalled £8.5 million.

From camps to jobs

There are over 600,000 registered refugees in Jordan, but only around 100,000 of them are in the formal Azraq and Zaatari camps. The vast majority live in urban areas, many of them in the capital city, Amman. Finding work is a priority.

In a positive step, 40,000 work permits have been issued to Syrian refugees in Jordan over the past year. Jordanian and Syrian businesses are starting to hire Syrians as part of the Jordan Compact — a trade agreement signed in July 2016 as a result of the London Syria Conference. The agreement allows Jordanian-based businesses access to EU markets in return for meeting certain conditions — including ensuring that 25% of their workforce is Syrian within 3 years. The ambition is to issue 200,000 work permits for Syrian refugees by 2020.

One Syrian-owned business in Amman has employed 49 new workers in the last 12 months alone, of which 27 are Syrian.

Alfyhaa Plastics produces plastic packaging products which are used and exported by brands across the Middle East. From food and detergent packaging to rubbish bags and greenhouse windows, the company has ambitions to become the biggest plastics producer in the region.

Syrian workers are employed on the same conditions as their Jordanian counterparts, so the scheme is helping Syrian refugee families to support themselves at the same time as creating jobs for Jordanians too.

Omar is from Homs in Syria. He fled to Lebanon at first with his brother when the conflict started, but then went back to Syria before having to flee a second time to Jordan.

He managed at first to find work in a coffee roasting factory in Amman, but then that business shut down. Now he’s working for Alfyhaa. Today he’s packing black rubbish bags.

“Some people were talking about this company but I hadn’t heard of it before”, he says.

“I applied for a position, and thank god, after a week, I was hired. I’m very happy working here, although my financial situation is still difficult.

“The only thing I want is for my family and I to be able to live a stable life.”

The owner of Alfyhaa Plastics is Hosni, a Syrian businessman. He ran the company in Syria before the conflict began, but decided to try and move it to Jordan in 2012. His is one of seven companies that are now eligible to export to the EU under the Jordan Compact.

“Home is where the heart is”, he says.

“When there is peace in Syria I hope we can work there again, but for now we’re making it work here”.

From Amman to Bekaa

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, 2oo hundred miles away on Syria’s western border, there are signs of progress as well - although huge challenges remain here too.

There are over 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon now — so many that they make up over a quarter of the country’s entire population. In just a few years, the country has become the 3rd biggest host of refugees in the world.

As in Jordan, the majority of Syrians in Lebanon are living in Lebanese communities — but unlike in Jordan, formal refugee camps are not allowed. This means that many Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living in what are known as ‘informal tented settlements’. Conditions in these informal camps are often very harsh indeed.

UK aid is providing support to aid agencies such as UNHCR and Save the Children to improve conditions in these camps, helping supply items such as plastic sheeting, heaters and insulation, to protect people from the elements.

Ibrahim, Radwan and Ramadan are brothers from Idlib in Syria. Ramadan has been disabled since birth, and is paralyzed from the waist down.

They live with their mother and their wider family in an informal tented settlement in Zahle, in the heart of Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, just a few miles from the border with Syria.

“We’ve been in Lebanon for 4 years”, says Ramadan.

“Life here is very difficult. We suffered a lot to come to here. We escaped shelling and fighting. My brother had to carry me here. We lost everything.

“I am ill and handicapped. I had 4 operations and cannot walk. I am disabled since I was born. I was born premature, and my body is small since I was born.

“Our situation here in Lebanon is OK, and least we are safe.

“I’m very grateful to Britain. The aid we get helps us.

“We’ve been given some insulation this winter to help protect our tent from the cold, and the food and fuel vouchers help too, but they run out before the end of the month.

“I don’t feel sad. This is what God destined for me. People ask me why I don’t walk and I say I got used to it. My brothers carry me. There is also my mother, and without her I won’t be able to move. I move around in a wheelchair. My brothers push me to go out. But I don’t go out so often — I watch TV.”

On the other side of Zahle, a few miles away, some progress is being made on jobs here too. An innovative pilot programme funded by UK aid is helping small and medium sized Lebanese businesses to deliver jobs and training for Syrian refugees as well as the poorest Lebanese.

Sawsan, a Syrian refugee from Damascus, is now working as a trainee accountant in a textile manufacturing business in Lebanon, thanks to the INTAJ scheme run, which is run by the NGO Mercy Corps.

“I found this job after seeing an advert for the scheme on the internet”, says Sawsan.

“I’ve been living in Lebanon for over 4 years. We left Syria because of the war. My husband and I had a young child and it wasn’t safe.

“I studied accounting, and I had one year left before graduating. Because of the war I couldn’t finish my course, but I’m enjoying working now. It means I can provide for my family and pay the rent.”

The textile company that she works for received an investment grant which meant that it could purchase a state-of-the-art electronic loom. This meant that the factory, which specialises in bed-linen, quilts and towels, could increase production from 20 embroidered quilts per day to 200. This meant that business owner Georges is able to supply greater quantities to his clients and had to hire more staff to keep up with the increased production.

Gassem is another Syrian refugee working in the factory. He came to Lebanon in 2011, just after the start of the uprising in Syria, and is now the operator of the hi-tech electronic loom.

“I have been working here for 6 months. I like the work”, he says.

“I had difficulties finding a good job, until I came to work here. I worked in different jobs, sometimes there was work, other times there wasn’t.

“My situation is better now. Now I have been working constantly for 6 months, so I am managing. Of course I would like to go back to Syria. It is my country. Nowhere is better than one’s homeland.

“But as long as I can work here, and it isn’t safe to go back, then I’ll stay here”.

However, huge challenges remain. On the other side of Zahle, the Taalabaya Public School now has 500 extra Syrian students, on top of its existing 350 local Lebanese children.

Madame Shoubassi, is the principal at the school, which is in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

“Children are like plants”, she says.

“They will grow pretty much anywhere, but they need care, attention and the right conditions if they are to flourish and flower properly.

“We welcome them all here, even though it is difficult. We have to give them the chance to thrive”.

Inside Syria

13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria. 6.3 million of them have been internally displaced — forced to leave their homes because of the fighting. Although the situation inside Syria remains incredibly challenging, UK aid is being delivered to those most in need through a range of partners. £734m of the UK’s overall 2.3 billion humanitarian support has been allocated to aid agencies working inside Syria from 2012 to date.

We are helping to meet the needs of the most vulnerable groups including in hard-to-reach areas, including providing education, health and protection assistance, access to water, shelter and non-food items.

Wider UK support includes helping building resilience at individual, community and institutional levels to enable people to cope in the short term and provide the foundation for a future political transition.

At the London Syria Conference, the international community and refugee hosting countries agreed to ensure that no child should miss out on the chance of an education as a result of the conflict, and made a pledge to deliver education to all refugee and host community children in countries neighbouring Syria. The UK is working with the government of Lebanon, international partners and UNICEF to try and achieve this.

As the conflict in Syria enters its seventh year, the UN has launched an $8 billion appeal to meet humanitarian needs inside Syria and across the region in 2017, highlighting that the conflict remains one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises.

It is vital that all donors not only fully deliver on their pledges to date, but step up with the new funding needed for 2017.