The story

As a result of the multiple displacements and the ongoing conflict, many people with disabilities have suffered from many problems, we note in abundance that more than a million people with various disabilities and chronic diseases or those related to their survival are marginalized and there are no projects to help them overcome their ordeals, both in If they are refugees or internally displaced in homes or camps, or residents, or even returnees to their homes.

Because of the small number of hospitals that provide free operations to help cure the previously mentioned people, the waiting lists get longer and longer on a daily basis, and the expected period for their treatment is very long and the person may die before being treated, and as a result, we launched the idea of the project, which helps to shorten the time for some and provide Medical devices for them to be treated or provide their needs as soon as possible.

Providing medical devices (prosthetic limbs - wheelchairs) for people with disabilities and children with disabilities, in particular, constitutes a very large financial burden on families in northwestern Syria, as well as the acute shortage of medical facilities that care for people with disabilities, these facilities almost non-existent.

Also, due to the poor financial situation in northwest Syria, as we mentioned previously, families give priority to securing food and water, and they will not be able to spend money on securing medical devices for their children, because of the high price of these devices, and therefore the purpose of the project stems from the need to help secure these important devices for children and to reduce the material and moral burden on these families.

The Priority

Nearly ten years after the Syrian crisis, disability has become enormously prevalent due to injuries as a result of aggressive actions or damage to the physical environment, and a recent assessment of disability among adults in western Aleppo and Idlib and Raqqa governorates indicated a prevalence rate of 30%, double the global average.

The assessment also showed that on average 45% of the people surveyed who were injured during the Syrian crisis are expected to suffer permanent disability, for example, amputation, spinal cord injury, and brain injury.

Persons with disabilities are at risk of being excluded from the humanitarian response despite their specific or additional needs, and more than 60% of PWD surveyed reported that their disability was exacerbated by the crisis, with the most common reasons being lack of access to health care and difficulties impede meeting their basic needs, and since many people are unable to work due to injury, access to livelihoods is also limited, and in families that include males with disabilities, women often play the role of the family’s sponsor and main breadwinner, so caring for people with disabilities and chronic diseases It is considered of very high importance under the current circumstances.

The reports

Syria remains one of the world's most complex humanitarian emergencies, which is subject to ongoing hostilities that have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives., caused one of the worst displacement crises of our time, and led to the destruction of civilian and agricultural infrastructure on a large scale, including homes. schools, health facilities, water supply, and irrigation systems.

Today, 13.4 million people in Syria require humanitarian assistance - an increase of 21% compared to 2020 - with needs increasingly exacerbated by the economic downturn, HNO reports in March 2021.

Moreover, nearly 12,000 children have been killed or injured since 2011, and 47 percent of young people have died an immediate family member or close friend, with nearly half of Syria's children have known nothing but a lifelong crisis - an estimated 2.45 million Of them were out of school in 2020 alone - an entire generation is at risk of getting lost.

The economy has been irreparably damaged since the start of the crisis, commodity prices have risen to their highest levels, and it is estimated that more than 90 percent of the population is now living below the poverty line, and the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated this economic downturn as a result of the lack of job opportunities, it is now estimated that 50 percent of the working-age population is unemployed.

Elaf is engaged with other protection partners to address the increasing adoption of negative and harmful coping strategies due to the current context, including child marriage and child labor, as well as increased exposure to domestic violence such as marital rape, sexual harassment, and exploitation by relatives and various members of the community.

Protection partners note a steady increase in the adoption of harmful coping mechanisms in response to combating the precarious economic situation exacerbated by the impacts of COVID-19 on societies and markets, leading in particular to child protection abuses and gender-based violence.

The scale of humanitarian needs in Syria remains very large. This is the result of ongoing hostilities in local areas and new and protracted displacement.

According to the HNO 2021 report, more than seven million people are highly dependent on humanitarian WASH assistance, including 1.9 million Persons living in informal settlements for displaced persons, which require comprehensive and continuous assistance in the field of water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Moreover, 36% rely on alternatives to piped water and often unsafe water supply methods to meet or supplement their water needs, at least 70% of wastewater is discharged without treatment and at least half of the sewage systems are not working, about 29% of the garbage is disposed of inappropriately.

In addition to all of the above, the total number of suicides in the region has risen sharply over the past year, jumping 86% in the first three months of 2021 compared to 2020, according to Save the Children.