Secretary Clinton Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for the Syrian Crisis

This newest funding from the United States will help provide critical aid to besieged communities inside Syria, and includes funding through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the World Health Organization (WHO); and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

This latest funding will be used to provide additional medical supplies and emergency medical care, including mental health care for children who are suffering severely in the midst of this crisis. This assistance will also help provide displaced children with continued access to education. The United States will also provide clean water, materials for shelter, blankets, basic household necessities such as hand soap and pots and pans, improved sanitation, and materials to help protect against the approaching winter. In some areas where markets are functioning, we will support a program for families to make housing repairs and purchase household supplies that will also infuse cash into the local economy. This funding provides assistance to Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Syrians impacted by the violence.

With this new assistance, the United States is providing more than $132 million in fiscal year 2012 for humanitarian activities both inside Syria and in neighboring countries:

• $48.5 million through the World Food Program (WFP);
• $30 million through NGOs;
• Almost $30 million through UNHCR;
• $11 million through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA);
• $8 million through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC);
• Almost $4 million through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF);
• $1.3 million through the World Health Organization (WHO);
• $1 million through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC);
• $0.5 million through the International Organization for Migration (IOM);
• $0.5 million through the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; and
• $0.3 million through the UN Department of Safety and Security for support of humanitarian operations.¹

The United States is aggressively pursuing all feasible options to expand humanitarian aid in Syria, utilizing both traditional and non-traditional humanitarian networks. The United States continues to pursue every available avenue to secure full, safe, and unfettered access for humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to the innocent children, women, and men caught in the middle of the ongoing Syrian conflict.

We recognize the generosity of the Governments of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq for receiving those fleeing the violence in Syria and for hosting and providing assistance to those in need. We commend the efforts of the United Nations and other international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to ease the trauma that the conflict in Syria has inflicted on those fleeing the violence.

For more detailed information on the U.S. Government’s response to the crisis in Syria, please visit: http://www.usaid.gov/crisis/syria.

¹ All dollar amounts are rounded.