30/09/2016
GA President sends message of support for Clara Barton Red Cross Syria Emergency Appeal
'At our Annual Meetings in April, we passed a motion expressing ‘deep concern’ over the deaths, serious injuries, displacement and refugee exodus caused to millions of people by the Syrian Civil War. Many of these people are vulnerable, innocent children.
Who can forget the image, once seen, of little Omran looking shocked and numb in the back of an ambulance, uncertain if any members of his family had survived the bombardment that had injured him in his own home?
Our resolution also called on us ‘to respond with compassion and generosity to the Clara Barton Red Cross Interfaith Emergency Appeal’. This Appeal gives much needed (but never enough) medical aid, food and shelter for the victims of this war. It is easy to pass such a motion and to support an Appeal in the moment hoping that the particular crisis will pass.
But, even as I am writing this message, I have heard a news bulletin telling me that there have been more attacks on Aleppo causing further serious damage to both buildings and people. Even rescue workers trying to help the injured from previous days have been targeted according to this bulletin. And so it goes on, and on, and on ...
Our own Unitarian Peace Fellowship is supporting the Clara Barton Syria Emergency Appeal and many of our most active members have signed the appeal.
I urge you all to support this appeal by giving, as you are able, and by raising awareness of the continuing crisis in Syria and its devastating consequences for so many people.
Dot Hewerdine
GA President'
Saving lives in Syria
The Syrian civil war has been described by the UN and International Red Cross as the worst humanitarian disaster since the Second World War.
More than 4.5 million refugees from Syria are in just five countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:
• Turkey hosts around 2.5 million
• Lebanon hosts approximately 1.1 million.
• Jordan hosts 635,324.
• Iraq, where 3.9 million people are already internally displaced, hosts 245,022 refugees
• Egypt hosts 117,658.
According to the UN, over 250,000 people have been killed and 13.5 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid inside Syria. More than 50% of Syria’s population is currently displaced.
The worst crisis is currently in Aleppo, where two million people have no access to water. Fears are growing that families are being forced to drink contaminated water carrying diseases that pose grave risks to the lives of many vulnerable people, especially young children.
UNICEF deputy director Justin Forsyth said: ‘Aleppo is slowly dying, and the world is watching, and the water is being cut off and bombed—it’s just the latest act of inhumanity.’ Six medical facilities—five hospitals and a blood bank—were bombed in Aleppo during the course of one week alone. Every neighbourhood has come under fire and other vital infrastructures have also been badly hit.
Marianne Gasser of the International Committee of the Red Cross described the situation as ‘devastating and overwhelming’.
‘Dozens of civilians are being killed every day and scores more injured from shells, mortars and rockets. .The bombing is constant. The violence is threatening hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, homes and livelihoods.’
How you can help save lives now?
Donations to our Clara Barton Red Cross Syria Emergency Appeal help to fund the work of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), which continues to help people in Aleppo and elsewhere amid all the destruction by running mobile medical centres to meet emergency and long-term health needs. These mobile units and other programmes also help with another kind of need: psychological and emotional support. Living under such dangerous conditions can take a terrible toll on people.
Red Cross/Crescent staff and volunteers report that people seeking medical assistance often have serious psychological problems as well as physical needs. The Red Cross has therefore trained volunteers in how to give people much-needed psychological and emotional support. The SARC’s own volunteers are subjected to the extreme stress of living and working in perilous conflict areas as much as the people they support. So they too must access the psychological support when they need it.
Vital support is also offered to mothers to help them cope with their children’s acute needs at every stage and vocational activities help people learn skills to build self-esteem, make a living and so support their dependent families.
If you wish to respond to this appeal, supported by 47 individual signatories, including our GA President, all GA Honorary Members and several other former GA Presidents, and our Peace Fellowship please send your cheque to:
British Red Cross, 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9Al. Please mark it for the ‘Clara Barton Red Cross Emergency Appeal’ and ‘for the attention of Laura Deacon’. http://www.redcross.org.uk/
The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.
