Syria - IOM last week (22 July) dispatched a first batch of non-food aid, including hygiene kits and jerry cans, from Damascus to Al-Hasakeh governorate in the northeast of the country, through a UN World Food Programme (WFP) airlift.

The WFP airlift started on July 9 and aims to continue to deliver aid to Syrian families cut off from humanitarian supplies by the conflict. 

As of July 25, IOM had delivered 3,200 hygiene kits to Al Qamishly with 1,500 jerry cans expected to be delivered soon.

The aid will be distributed to some 16,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, and other vulnerable people in Al-Shaddadah, Al-Areesheh and Al Hole and other rural areas south of Al-Hasakeh. The distribution, which will be implemented by the Syrian Catholic Archbishopric and other local NGOs, will be monitored by IOM.

“IOM relies on its own network, as well as the collective efforts of humanitarian partners, to optimize aid delivery to the most vulnerable affected families in Syria,” said IOM Syria Chief of Mission Maria Rumman.

Since the beginning of April 2016, IOM, in coordination with local NGO partners, has also provided 100 shelter sealing kits to the most vulnerable displaced families in Jabal Abdul Aziz, Tal Tamer and other rural areas south and east of Al Hasakeh city. They are now home to some 755 people.

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, IOM has helped a total of over 3.17 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 14 Syrian governorates with non-food and shelter aid.

IOM continues to call for support to alleviate the suffering of the people of Syria and to build their resilience. It also calls for an immediate end to all attacks on civilians. The main challenge for IOM and its humanitarian partners in delivering aid inside Syria remains a shortage of funding.

The Syria Humanitarian Response Plan for 2016 remains acutely under-funded and as of July 2016, IOM activities in the Plan are only 9 percent funded. IOM’s operations in Al-Hasakeh are currently supported by the governments of Australia and Japan.

To read the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan for 2016 please go to: http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/2016-syrian-arab-republic-humanitarian-response-plan-january-december

For further information please contact IOM Syria. Maria Rumman, Tel: +963 933 311 204, Email: mrumman@iom.int  or Shihab Al Kairawan, Tel: + 963 992 299 330, Email: salkairawan@iom.int.