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STORY: WFP / EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE
TRT: 02:06
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13-20 FEBRUARY 2023, BABA AL-HAWA/ATMA/ALEPPO, SYRIA
15 FEBRUARY 2023, BABA AL-HAWA, SYRIA – TÜRKIYE BORDER
1. Various shots, 22 WFP Trucks crossing border
16 FEBRUARY 2023, ATMA, SYRIA
2. Various shots, WFP food being distributed to displaced people, IDP camp
20 FEBRUARY 2023, ALEPPO, SYRIA
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenn Crossley, Country Director, Syria, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Within hours WFP was working with partners to provide hot meals in churches, schools, mosques, government shelters all sorts of buildings. Neighbours were helping each other. We have now seen that emergency response scale-up significantly. As of today WFP has reached over 800,000 people here in Syria. But unfortunately, it’s not just today, it’s not just this week. These people are going to need help for months, probably years to come – there is no place for them to go back home, there is no way for them to earn their livelihoods. Here in Syria it’s a crisis on top of a crisis. We need the world to stand up, we need the world to help.”
13 FEBRUARY 2023, ALEPPO, SYRIA
4. Various shots, mosque, earthquake-affected families, Kallaseh neighborhood
The World Food Programme (WFP) has stepped up its emergency response to support victims of the devastating earthquake in Syria and Türkiye, providing emergency food assistance to nearly two million quake-affected people in the two countries through hot meals, emergency ready-to-eat food packages and family food rations.
WFP teams in the two countries are delivering immediate relief in the affected areas and, at the same time, assessing needs and supporting logistics efforts.
Because WFP has ongoing operations in both countries, it has partners, staff, and a robust supply chain, which means responding to food needs could begin within the first hours of the disaster.
“Families tell me they left everything behind when the earthquake hit, running for their lives. WFP’s food is a lifeline for them. While they think about their next steps in the destruction left by the earthquake, their children can eat,” said Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and East Europe.
“We have scaled up rapidly, and requests for more food are coming every day from municipalities and communities. We are there for them, but WFP can’t do it alone. We urgently appeal for funding to help us reach those in need.”
In Syria, in addition to providing immediate food assistance in quake-affected cities, WFP has resumed its regular general food assistance for 5.5 million people every month following a brief pause after the earthquakes.
This includes regular monthly in-kind or cash-based assistance to 1.4 million in non-government-controlled areas of the northwest.
Between 13 and 16 February, 52 WFP-contracted trucks crossed into northwest Syria through Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam.
With humanitarian access expanded by opening two additional border crossing points from Türkiye to northwest Syria, WFP plans to use all three Turkish-Syrian border crossings, Bab al-Hawa, Bab al-Salam, and Al Ra’ee, to ensure a constant reach of aid to non-government-controlled areas of northwest Syria.
Before the earthquake, food insecurity and poverty in Syria were already at alarming rates, with a population suffering the effects of 12 years of conflict and successive shocks.
Over 12 million people nationwide were categorized as food insecure, including 2.5 million people severely food insecure. In addition, 2.9 million were at risk of slipping into food insecurity.
The Syrian economy is too fragile to withstand external shocks, and the earthquake-affected cities of Syria have been severely impacted by the conflict.
In northwest Syria, 90 percent of the population, 4.1 million people, already relied on humanitarian assistance before the earthquake.
“We rely on the international donor community to stand up for Syrians; otherwise, the 6 February earthquakes will turn an already dire situation into an unbearable scenario for millions of people,” says WFP Representative and Country Director in Syria, Kenn Crossley.
“No population can face this alone after years of conflict, a pandemic, and catastrophic economic decline.”
WFP is appealing for US$230 million to provide both countries assistance through hot meals, ready-to-eat meals, vouchers, and cash.
