You can do something to help the children and their loved ones. It's really quite simple.
Donate to Shelter Boxes and help give Syrian children driven from their homes shelter and the knowledge that there are people who care.
Shelter Boxes has already spent over $1,000,000 dollars for shell shocked men, women, and children.
And it's the children who have shattered my heart.
Children. Children whose faces look like the face of my beloved six year old grand boy. Children whose faces remind me of my son's and daughters' faces when they were young.
Three quarters of the over 1.6 million Syrian refugees are children.
Some 6.8 million people have been forced from their homes in war-torn Syria, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), having been exposed to violence and unremitting fighting. Many now remain within the borders with no home to go to and no possessions. There are 1.6 million refugees, three quarters of them being women and children, seeking safety and shelter across neighbouring countries. Many are living in flimsy cramped makeshift shelters. The vast majority of fleeing families arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs. Many are injured from continuous bombing and shelling. They have no regular food and no income. Men, women and children are suffering through no fault of their own. They are in desperate need of emergency shelter and other lifesaving supplies. ShelterBox is responding.
My children never saw bombs and bullets destroying the very fabric of their lives. My children did not have parents cut down, homes, schools, and communities destroyed.
The children in Syrian refugee camps have and more are arriving every day. Over six thousand refugees crossed the border into Lebanon yesterday, a six fold increase in the number of refugees seeking safety.
Lebanese officials told the Associated Press that at least 6,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon in a 24-hour period in Masnaa, compared with a normal daily tally of between 500 and 1,000 refugees.
A million children are now refugees from Syria crisis
GENEVA, 23 August (UNHCR) – One million Syrian children have now been registered as refugees, forced from their homeland by a war that is well into its third year, the United Nations announced on Friday.
"What is at stake is nothing less than the survival and well being of a generation of innocents," António Guterres, High Commissioner of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) that has counted each member of the exodus, said in Geneva.
"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope."
The world's babies. Our babies. Our responsibility. Their future. Our future.
Grief stricken parents. Our fellow parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles. Our responsibility. Their future. Our future.
As fellow human beings, how could it be any other way?
We can do something to ease their sorrow, fear, and uncertainty. We can let them know they are not alone.
Won't you please, please, help?
I did. It wasn't much as I don't have much, but compared to what these children have lost, I have everything.
Please donate here to Shelter Box - https://app.etapestry.com/...
or here to the UN Refugee Agency - http://donate.unhcr.org/...
UNICEF and the UNHCR have partnered together in the "The largest humanitarian operation in history."
How can we not do something to help the children?
Update: As doc2 said in the comments, please keep the "political" out of here. Helping the children does not depend upon where one stands on "military intervention." That can be discussed elsewhere. Thank you.
Update2: MB raises two crucial points in his comment below.
UNHCR and UNICEF have warned that -
"The Syria Regional Refugee Response plan, which calls for US$3 billion dollars to address the acute needs of refugees until December of this year, is currently only 38 percent funded."
In order to continue their work on the critical needs of Syrian children for housing, schooling, healthcare and others, the money must be provided. You can help make that happen by calling your Senators and Congressional Representatives. As MB said, after you've made your donation, please call and and ask for complete funding for the Syria Regional Refugee Response plan.
Contact information for Congress - http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Thank you!
Update3: jlms qkw reminded me of the work Medecins Sans Frontieres, known as Doctors Without Borders, has been doing in Syria. The unfortunate reality is that they are struggling to keep up with the rising level of medical needs. They need donations in order to increase their efforts in Syria. If you would like to help, please go here - http://www.msf.org/...
Thank you