Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) volunteers with Syrian children.
DOHA: Under its ‘Warm Winter 2018’ campaign, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) is providing the basic needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) and host communities in Syria, to help them withstand the burden of cold winter.
Till the issuance of this report, QRCS’s personnel in Syria have distributed more than 13,500 winterization clothing kits for adults and children.
In cooperation with Social Development International (SDI), they also distributed nearly 1,000 heaters and 135,000 liters of heating oil, with each family receiving 75 liters per month for three months. These supplies have so far reached out to over 25,000 people from the neediest displaced households at shelter camps in Idlib, Idlib countryside, Aleppo countryside, and Hama countryside, northern Syria. A special focus was paid to the households with no earners, households maintained by women or children, and households with disabilities or elderly members.
According to reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 8 million IDPS in Syria spend the seventh winter in displacement. Children are the most vulnerable victims of cold weather and blizzards, especially without protection, warm clothing, or heating oil, amid temperatures that frequently hit as low as -5 degrees Celsius.
From mid-December 2017 to 24 January 2018, the Shelter Cluster have recorded 272,345 Syrians displaced mainly towards Idlib. The UN 2018 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) shows 13.1 million Syrian IDPs in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 5.3 million deprived of shelter and basic life-saving needs.
