Syria, Aleppo, 31 August 2022
“This apartment was empty, so a neighbour told me to take the place. But the building next door fell down,” Houriyeh says. “There are no doors or windows. It rains inside. There is no heating, no sources for electricity.”
A mother-of-5 with a 2-month-old baby, she recently lost her husband to cancer. Alone, without family or income, she has no money for rent and is constantly afraid their apartment building might collapse.She spends her days inside taking care of the children with just a few mattresses, buckets, household items and a mobile phone as meagre possessions.
In Halwaniya, another ravaged neighborhood of East Aleppo, Houriyeh once had to pull her son from the rubble. “At 13, he is afraid of everything,” she says.
Halwaniya, a ravaged neighborhood of East Aleppo, where Hourieh’s home is located. © UNFPA-Syria
Houriyeh lives in this house that has no windows no doors, nothing. She lives in an abandoned building in Aleppo. It’s been a while since she moved here and the building is empty without residents. Houriyeh lives with her 5 children in East Aleppo. Life is so hard as a widow without income. They were displaced many times and suffered a lot.
She went to AL-Ihsan organization during her pregnancy, the doctors were taking care of her, giving regular check-ups and medicine.
Then, they gave her this cash card, which will be recharged every month. Thanks to the EU / European Commission Humanitarian Aid & Civil Protection (ECHO) support, UNFPA, WFP and their local partners can help her.
The situation is hard for Houriyeh. But now she can get the things I need, it’s true that everything is expensive, but she can buy what she needs most, like detergent and food for her children. “Thank God, if it wasn’t for this card, I wouldn’t be able to buy anything”. Houriyeh commented.
Hourieh is one of thousands vulnerable Syrian women who are in dire need for support . © UNFPA-Syria
Thanks to the European Union who helps vulnerable mothers like her with free reproductive healthcare & cash assistance.
The support provided by the European Union has also proven crucial to delivering essential services to people in need in Syria.
UNFPA is immensely grateful to the European Union for its unwavering support of vital programmes in Syria during 2022, a year that continues to bring ever-growing challenges. 2022 marked another grim milestone for Syrians as the crisis entered its 12th year. For women and girls, the cumulative impact has been catastrophic, upending decades of progress on women’s issues and bringing unprecedented risks that have fundamentally altered their lives. The crisis remains one of the world’s most complex humanitarian and protection emergencies. An estimated 14.6 million people – half of them women and girls – are in need of assistance.
The programmes made possible through UNFPA’s partnership with the EU are providing irreplaceable lifelines to individuals and communities throughout the country, allowing women and girls to access vital Sexual Reproductive Health services as well as tailored programming for those at risk or survivors of Gender Based Violence.
With humanitarian needs at an all-time high, the EU & UNFPA are committed to maintain a humanitarian lifeline for Syrian women and girls across the country.
