UN resumes food aid for Syrian refugees

Successful social media campaign reinstates essential humanitarian assistance to 1.7 million displaced Syrians

By John Heilprin 9 December 2014, 4:43 pm Edit
A Syrian refugee woman and her son peel potatoes outside their tent, at a refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of al-Faour near the border with Syria, December 2, 2014. (AP/Hussein Malla)
A Syrian refugee woman and her son peel potatoes outside their tent, at a refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of al-Faour near the border with Syria, December 2, 2014. (AP/Hussein Malla)

GENEVA (AP) — After a social media campaign brought in a significant cash infusion, the UN food agency said Tuesday it has reinstated a food aid program that helps feed more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees.

In early December, the World Food Program suspended electronic food vouchers for Syrians who had fled to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The move triggered panic among the refugees, threatening to starve thousands of families and add pressure on the already strained countries hosting them.

At the time, WFP said many donors failed to meet their commitments. The agency said it needed $64 million to support Syrian refugees in December alone.

On Tuesday, WFP said the voucher program was on again, thanks an unusual campaign it launched on social media to raise $1 contributions from 64 million people around the world.

The WFP said it solicited $1.8 million in donations from almost 14,000 people and from private sector donors in 158 countries.

“This outpouring of support in such a short time is unprecedented,” the food agency’s chief Ertharin Cousin said.

The program pays for electronic vouchers, or e-cards, uploaded with an average $30 per family member, for refugees to buy food in local shops.

WFP has helped feed millions of displaced people inside Syria and those who fled abroad since the crisis erupted in March 2011. The Syrian war has so far killed more than 200,000 people and led to a massive humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 3 million to seek refuge abroad and displacing 6.5 million within the country.

The violence in Syria continues unabated.

A government rocket attack on Monday in the southern province of Daraa killed three staffers working for Orient TV, an opposition-linked channel, according to activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Dozens of journalists have been killed in Syria since the start of the crisis. Authorities in Damascus restrict access to independent foreign media while local reporters work under heavy restrictions.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.

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