Since the beginning, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) has been leading the humanitarian response and is the largest provider of humanitarian services in the country. Through SARC, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement - of which Australian Red Cross is a part - has an unparalleled presence throughout the country, reaching over five million people every single month with life-saving assistance.
Red Cross Red Crescent teams provide life-saving health care for the sick and injured: from ambulances and mobile clinics, to medical transport and first-aid.
SARC supply clean drinking water and sanitation to 80% of Syria’s population. Red Cross Red Crescent teams provide and repair emergency shelters for families who have been displaced and have nowhere else to go. We distribute warm clothes, blankets and mattresses for people trying to survive the harsh winter.
A Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer providing relief items to a woman in Tartous, Syria. Photo: SARC
We provide food and baby supplies and hygiene kits so families can live day-to-day. Our specialist trained staff and volunteers provide psychosocial support for those who have experienced trauma.
In other parts of Syria where fighting has subsided and families are returning home, hoping to rebuild their lives, we are repairing essential infrastructure such as water pumping stations, hospitals and bakeries and are providing livelihoods support through vocational training, home gardening initiatives and agricultural support through seed, fertilizer and livestock distributions.
Our teams are in the most hard to reach and dangerous places, negotiating access to besieged towns and cities across the country, so we can evacuate people as needed and deliver food and other essentials to people trapped in these areas. We are on the ground in camps such as Al-Hol, in north-east Syria, working to meet the needs of around 60,000 people – mostly women and children – who have been displaced by conflict.
In North-West Syria, SARC is providing essential healthcare services, and first-aid. Clean drinking water, emergency shelter, support for evacuations and emergency relief items such as food parcels, blankets and bags of four.
Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer distributing relief items in Idlib, Syria. Photo: SARC