Syrian Refugee Crisis FAQs

In 2018, our Syria Crisis Response team contributed to the well-being of over 2.2 million people, in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. Just over 1.3 million of these were children.

Lebanon: World Vision’s response has helped 202,600 people, through running informal education to help children re-enter school, providing water, sanitation and hygiene in schools, creating child friendly spaces, and providing cash and food assistance to refugees.

Jordan: Some 188,316 people in Jordan have been able to settle into their changed lives, with a strong emphasis on child protection, schools, household financial support, and education opportunities.  We have also been providing water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in camps, and alternative learning and psychosocial support for children of all backgrounds. 

Syria: Over 852,000 people have been supported through sustainable water and sanitation solutions, psychosocial support for children, household and winter items, a new school and filling gaps in fractured health-care. 

Turkey: World Vision helped 47,000 with protection across the border and non-formal education.

Iraq: Over 937,000 people in Iraq were supported with access health, water, hygiene, learning opportunities, with an emphasis on safe and food-secure living conditions.

World Vision is not allowed to work directly in Syria. But we are supporting partner organisations in northern Syria who are providing emergency relief and running programmes in focused on healthcare, water, sanitation and child protection/psychosocial support. They are distributing things displaced people need the most including; water purification tablets, hygiene and cooking kits, fuel, blankets and bedding. They’re also helping deploy mobile medical units, bringing vaccinations, medicine and specialist help to the many pregnant women and new mothers.

Fighting has increased since October 2019 and this has put almost half a million people living in the area at heightened risk. There have already been civilian deaths and these people are at risk of death or injury if they don’t leave their homes. Many have already been forced from their homes elsewhere in the country, some more than once.

There are at least 1,650,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance in north-east Syria. Humanitarian work assisting them is under threat from this latest fighting. Half a million people live close to the conflict zone, near the Turkish border, and are in great danger. Many of them have already been forced from their homes and could be displaced again as Syria’s war continues.

World Vision is urging parties to the conflict to protect civilians and facilitate safe access for aid agencies. The international community, including the UN Security Council, must urge restraint and facilitate continued vital humanitarian access. 

Idlib is facing a major humanitarian crisis, after the conflict intensified around the end of April 2019. The bombing has forced hundreds of thousands of people living in the Idlib region to leave their homes in search of safety. Most are now living in tents in informal camps, where conditions are terrible.