Many of us think that the crisis in Syria is a political one. But it is not — it is a children’s crisis, and it is among the biggest in the world. Over 2 million children are affected by the violence in Syria, and over half a million children are refugees. While UNICEF and its partners are doing everything they can to help affected children and families, UNICEF’s efforts are severely underfunded. If funding is not received in the next weeks, millions of children will suffer. We are urgently calling on the entire donor community to support UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts in and around Syria.

Many of us think that the crisis in Syria is a political one. But it is not — it is a humanitarian crisis, and it is among the biggest in the world. Over 2 million children are affected by the violence in Syria, and over half a million children are refugees. While UNICEF and its partners are doing everything they can to help affected children and families, UNICEF’s efforts are severely underfunded. If funding is not received in the next weeks, millions of children will suffer. We are urgently calling on the entire donor community to support UNICEF’s emergency relief efforts in and around Syria.

For over two years, the children of Syria have lived through shelling, endured trauma, missed out on school, fled their homes, and seen relatives die. In a recent editorial in the Toronto Star, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lane warns that “An entire generation of Syrian children and their families is at risk of being lost amidst the rubble.” The crisis in Syria is a true children’s crisis. And while UNICEF is committed to reaching Syrian families and children, the challenges remain enormous.

The conflict in Syria has taken a terrible humanitarian toll. More than anything, this is a children’s crisis. Of the one million refugees, half are children. Inside Syria, two million children are affected, and 800,000 are displaced.
UNICEF has been on the ground, doing all it can to help the children and families affected by the violence.
But a huge funding gap threatens UNICEF’s efforts on behalf of these desperate children: 78% of the funds that UNICEF needs have not been raised. Without immediate additional funding, UNICEF will have to halt many of its key lifesaving interventions.

Kuajok feels like the middle of nowhere.
Our journey began with an hour and half flight from South Sudan’s capital city Juba to the town of Aweil. From Aweil we drove nearly five hours on dusty potholed roads. At times our driver would slow down to 6 miles an hour to maneuver the massive craters.
I was in South Sudan to observe a seven-day immunization campaign supported by UNICEF and partners, including Kiwanis International. The Eliminate Project, a partnership between Kiwanis International and UNICEF, aims to protect women and their future newborns around the world from maternal and neonatal tetanus. The goal is to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus worldwide by 2015.

On February 14, women, men and children everywhere were rising up in opposition to violence against women. We were part of a campaign called One Billion Rising, which grew out of the fact that 1 in 3 women around the world will be raped or abused in her lifetime. That’s more than one billion women and girls.
UNICEF works around the world to protect women and girls from violence. In 2007, UNICEF and V-Day launched the creation of a safe space in Bakavu, DRC, for survivors of sexual violence, called City of Joy. This is just one example of how UNICEF and partners are working to end violence against women and children.