GOAL CEO, Barry Andrews has announced that the agency’s humanitarian response programme in Syria is the largest intervention in its 36-year history.

“We are constantly expanding our programmes, and will soon be feeding 120,000 people a month," said Mr. Andrews "also by the end of September, approximately 133,000 people will be benefiting from a GOAL voucher  scheme."           

Some of GOAL’s current work includes:

• The distribution of family size food rations; since May, GOAL has distributed 20,000 of these food rations and will have distributed 42,000 in Idlib and Hama Governorates by October, meaning at least 120,000 people in these areas will be receiving food aid from GOAL each month.

• The provision of vouchers that can be redeemed at local shops for clothing, hygiene products and household wares; GOAL has already provided almost 6,000 families with these vouchers. In the coming weeks, a separate eight-month programme will provide 1,000 extremely vulnerable households with cash vouchers to allow families to buy various essential items. By the end of September, at least 133,000 people will be benefitting from GOAL’s voucher scheme in northern Idlib.

• Winter NFIs; in preparation for the winter and the cold temperatures, GOAL will soon be targeting 12,000 families with non-food items, including woollen blankets, buckets and jerry cans; and a further 5,700 families with hygiene kits.

“GOAL’s Syria intervention has become the largest in our history, but relative to the magnitude of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, there is so much more we can do," added Mr. Andrews .

“The most conservative UN estimates are that at least six million people are in need of aid, and 4.25 million of these have been driven from their homes. More than 100,000 people have been killed, yet the violence continues unchecked. Syrian families we are working with – the vast majority of whom have lost loved ones in the conflict - are in despair. At the moment, they don’t see any end to this conflict.”

“A massive aid operation is needed in Syria, and the international community must create the conditions whereby this is possible.”