Welcome to SOS Children’s Villages

Syria

SOS Children have worked in Syria since 1981

There are 2 SOS Children’s Villages:

• Qodsaya• Near Damascus • Cares for children in family houses • Children go to school and have lots of

opportunities• Has an SOS Youth Home for those nearing

independence.

• Aleppo• Opened in 1998• Has 12 family houses • Has an SOS Nursery which looks after

children from the local community too• Has links to an SOS Youth Home run

specifically for girls • Has its own Social Centre which runs

community outreach programmes such as vocational training.

This is Amjad…

Amjad is a refugee.

Amjad

• Amjad had to flee his home after shells fell in front of his house.

‘I no longer want to go back home, I am afraid of going back there. I used to hide in the kitchen between the oven and the fridge, on the floor. I closed by ears with my fingers so that I didn’t hear the shelling and shooting. I will never go back to our old house, we were so scared there’.

Amjad, aged 12

What is a refugee?

• 2 million Syrians are currently classed as refugees and half of these are children. But what is a refugee?

• A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. Many of them cannot return home or are afraid to do so.

Syrian refugees

• 2 million refugees.

• 720,000 in Lebanon, 520,000 in Jordan, 464,000 in Turkey (August 2013)

• 1 million child refugees, 740,000 under the age of 11.

• The majority live in refugee camps.

Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan

Source: AP

Life as a refugee

• Refugee camps often become ‘home’ - many refugees end up living in refugee camps for years

• Refugees need, and have a right to, all the things we do – shelter, food, clean water, medical care and education.

• But, it is difficult to provide these things in a refugee camp:

- Lack of infrastructure - Poor transport and communications - Limited money- Limited space- Language barriers

• Schools are very basic

Life as a refugee:Separation

Many refugee children end up alone:

• Chaos of escape means children easily lose their parents and families.

• In Syria, many children have lost parents in the conflict.

• These children have to grow up fast missing out on their childhood.

Life as a refugee:Food & health

• Many refugees go hungry or eat a restricted diet

• Diseases spread easily

• Limited medical facilities and not many trained doctors and nurses

Life as a refugee:Education

• Children who flee in fear often have special problems

• School helps them overcome this - it symbolises normality

• They can learn about their own culture and country and spend time with other children

• Education becomes a symbol of hope

• Classrooms are very basic – a tent or small building

• Lessons are often held outside• There are often no desks and children sit

on the floor• There are very few textbooks and

stationary

Internally displaced people

An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who has been forced to flee from his or her home for the same reason as a refugee, but has not left his or her own country.

Unlike refugees, IDPs are not protected by international law or eligible to receive many types of aid.

SOS Children supporting IDPs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1uNQixff94

•Families are living in tiny rooms all over Syria, displaced from their homes.

•They have left everything behind & everyday survival is a struggle.

•Finding milk to feed babies and young children is especially difficult as food prices are rising and transport links are destroyed.

•SOS Children is supporting displaced families, providing them with things like milk.

•Just £7.50 stands between families and buying enough milk to feed their infants.