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After nearly ten years of war in Syria, a report released today by Save the Children now shows that those most affected by the conflict are the least to blame, that is, children.
Need immediate help
From a nutrition and child perspective, the report shows that infants and young children are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and death in Syria.
While the crisis is far from over, 4.6 million children in Syria need immediate help with food and water, Save the Children writes in the report released Tuesday. Behind the report are figures obtained from the World Food Program (WFP) and the UN.
Some of the children are starving.
– It is a very serious situation that can turn into a disaster if they do not receive quick help. What makes this disaster more serious is that the number of children without food has increased considerably in the last 6 months. It gives us an indication that it is getting worse, says Nora Ingdal, Save the Children’s foreign manager.
Approximately half a million Syrian children are chronically malnourished and many are stunted. This carries a number of serious health risks, and Syria is now feared to lose an entire generation as a result of malnutrition.
Children are starving in Syria. – Heartbreaking, says Egeland
A gradual death
– Lack of food, and especially nutritious food, leads to worse health and gradual death. Children become short, cognitively retarded, and simply receive too little nutrition to develop normally. They generally have a weaker immune system and we see that diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia cause a high mortality rate for children under the age of five, says Nora Ingdal.
Compound problem
The Save the Children report points out several reasons why the situation in Syria is now developing so rapidly in the wrong direction.
– Higher food prices, lack of nutritious food, covid-19 and a major political disagreement over border crossings into Syria impede food imports, war in the 10th year, less financial support from the outside world and almost no guest workers sending money to Syria are contributing factors to this crisis, says Nora Ingdal.
For the field of nutrition, aid organizations experience that the joy of giving has become significantly less around the world. Donors have funded only 11 percent of the total nutritional need for aid. The rest must be financed in other ways, and this means that the children live mainly on rice and beans, not on fruits and vegetables.
Little food and money
– It is incomprehensible how little food there is in these areas. Our people on the ground in Syria report that children get fruit every three months or less. One mother recounted how she divided an apple into five pieces and gave each member of the family a piece of apple. It’s heartbreaking, Ingdal says.
– Another big problem is that mothers lose the ability to breastfeed too early. It is extremely important to breastfeed children for the first six months, but when mothers do not get enough nutritious food, they lose milk. They then transfer their iron deficiency to the children, who in the next round also don’t get enough nutrition and end up stunted, Nora Ingdal tells Dagbladet.
Important to act
The report notes that action must be taken now, before the children’s health situation deteriorates and the damage to health becomes permanent. Stunting has long-lasting destructive effects and increases the child’s risk of death
– We are now facing a long winter, and we know that the situation is getting even worse. Seven hundred thousand children are in a very serious situation and this can go very wrong. That is why it is important that we take a position in favor of Syria now, concludes Nora Ingdal at Save the Children.
