In Photos: A Timeline of the War in Syria
A year-by-year look at how 12 years of war in Syria has had a devastating impact on children's education, mental health and childhood.
Donate to Help Children in Syria and Syrian Refugees
- With the conflict in Syria enduring its 13th year, a series of deadly earthquakes have caused a crisis within a crisis.
- 15.3 million people, including 7 million children, are in need of humanitarian aid amid ongoing violence and displacement.
- Save the Children has supported more than 8.3 million people to date, including 4.9 million children.
15.3 million people in Syria, including 7 million children, need of humanitarian aid
97% of the population in Syria live below the poverty line
Syria is the third least peaceful country in the world according to the Global Peace Index (GPI)
Save the Children has been providing assistance to the children in need in Syria since 2012. We have supported more than 8.3 million people, including 4.9 million children.
We're delivering hygiene kits and trainings to children
We're screening children and pregnant and lactating women for malnutrition
We're facilitating the vaccination of children and women
We're improving access and quality of pre-primary and primary education
We're supporting internally displaced people through cash grants
We running child-friendly spaces, where boys and girls can socialize and play
The ongoing armed conflict in Syria has left more than 15 million people, more than half of whom are children, in need of humanitarian aid. Your donation today to the Children's Emergency Fund can help provide lifesaving aid. Together, we can provide Syrian relief and shelter, safety and hope for all children living in crisis.
Advocate for the mental health of children in Syria and Syrian refugee children by joining our political advocacy arm — Save the Children Advocacy Network's — efforts to send a message to Congress.
The Crisis in Syria: Frequently Asked Questions
The conflict in Syria has devastated the lives of a generation of young people.
Many children have lost relatives to death, detainment, or disappearance, leaving Syrian orphans separated from their families in the brutal chaos of war.
An unknown number of children have been killed or injured in the conflict, but it is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Children have experienced psychological distress because of violence and instability, being separated from their parents or seeing their loved ones killed, only further compounded by the earthquakes.
2023 has already seen a 40% increase in the number of children in need.
So many children in Syria have missed years of education. There were 2.4 million children in Syria out of school before the earthquakes.
In Syria, children have faced repeated risks of bombardment, displacement, death, destruction, illness and hunger over the last 12 years, which has had a huge impact on their mental health.
Since the earthquakes, children have been exposed to further life-threatening events, suffering life-changing injuries, lost family members and friends, and seen their homes and schools destroyed overnight. In these conditions, children and their caregivers need crucial psychosocial support to avoid long-term repercussions on a child’s health, wellbeing and development for months or even years to come.
The Syrian Pound exchange rate has undergone a more than 70-fold depreciation since the onset of hostilities in 2011. This decline has accelerated since late 2019, after the start of Lebanon’s currency crisis.
The devaluation is felt by communities and families who have witnessed additional increases in the prices of basic commodities, including food, water and fuel. The crisis in Ukraine has upended the markets for food and energy, contributing to the falling of standards of living.
The economic impact of the earthquakes that ripped through southern Türkiye and northern Syria threatens to push at least another 665,000 Syrians into hunger, with doctors and aid agencies warning that levels of child stunting and maternal malnutrition are reaching levels never seen before.
The number of Syrians acutely food insecure and facing hunger had already reached 12.1 million people—more than half the population—before the first devastating earthquake hit in the early hours of February 6.
As part of the earthquake response, Save the Children is delivering aid through partners, responding in Idlib and Aleppo governorates, and providing emergency food rations, blankets, tents, and warm clothing. Save the Children is also making sure children and their families can keep clean, healthy, and protected from illness and diseases, as well as providing protection services, including psychosocial support.
Save the Children has been providing assistance to children in need in Syria since 2012 through local partners and directly.
Save the Children programming combines emergency and life-saving interventions with early recovery activities that support the restoration of basic services, and aims to reach every last child in need, with a particular focus on the most marginalized children and their families.
Our goal is to ensure that every child in Syria survives, learns and is protected.
By joining Team Tomorrow as a monthly donor, your continued support can help make a major difference in the lives and communities of children around the world, including those growing up in conflict zones.
Syria Conflict Facts:
- Population of Syria: 22.1 million
- Total population in need: 15.3 million
- Total children in need: 7 million
- People affected by the earthquake: 8.8 million
How Your Support Helps:
- People provided with health, water sanitation and hygiene services, food and nutrition support, psychosocial support and child protection: 8.3 million
- Emergency aid delivered to earthquake survivors: 587,000 people
Donate to Support Syrian Relief Efforts
Your generous support to the Children's Emergency Fund supports our relief efforts for children in Syria, Syrian refugees and children all around the world who are growing up in conflict.
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