CARE I NTERNATIONAL UK MEETING THE ESSENTIAL NEEDS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES – FOOD, WATER AND SHELTER
F ew will have been left unmoved by the sight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war crisis – the biggest humanitarian emergency in the world and the worst that Europe has faced since the Second World War. That is why we have selected CARE International UK – a charity set up to meet people’s basic needs such as food, water and shelter – for this year’s appeal.
The British were among the first beneficiaries of international aid. In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of food packages were sent to these shores under the US Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE) programme set up in 1945.
Rationing forced people to subsist on only 800 calories a day, but the care packages supplemented this with such hitherto unknown pleasures as chocolate and tinned peaches, as well as warm blankets and clothes. In the first two years alone, 6.6 million packages were sent to Europe, with more than 400,000 of them going to families in the UK.
Now that same programme has grown into the charity CARE International, which operates in 75 developing countries across the world.
CARE continues to save lives in emergencies, not only by meeting people’s immediate needs, but also by giving them access to health services, as well as working to find long-term solutions to poverty and injustice.
The charity still sends modernday care packages, including essential supplies for people recovering from disasters or fleeing from conflict. And this year its work has become more vital than ever before.
Close to 250,000 have been killed in fighting in the Syrian conflict, while four million people have fled the country to seek safety elsewhere. Most live in refugee camps or in appalling conditions in towns and cities in the region. Many families have been driven by desperation to take incredible risks to try to reach safety in Europe.
CARE has been closely involved since the outbreak of the conflict, working inside Syria to establish healthcare facilities and training, and helping to rebuild the country’s shattered economy through entrepreneurship programmes to provide some semblance of normal life that refugees might one day return to.
As refugees continue to make the treacherous journey to safety, CARE is also working in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey – and throughout Europe – by providing food, medical supplies, shelter, blankets and warm clothing.
With winter soon to bite, the situation is becoming increasingly urgent and the emergency assistance provided by CARE is as vitally needed now as it was 70 years ago.