Red Cross Issues Urgent Appeal On Syria

The Red Cross has made an urgent appeal for $27 million for its vital work in Syria.

To date, it has helped 200,000 victims of the violence across the country. The International Committee for the Red Cross is the only international aid agency working in Syria, and despite occasional hiccups, it has managed to get help to those in need, while others talk only about violence and vengeance.

Any money you donate will go to Syrians displaced by the violence, and to those working with the 24,600 refugees currently living in camps in Turkey.

The ICRC’s President, Jakob Kellenberger, made a rare political statement on the situation in Syria, telling the BBC that he urgently wanted more UN monitors to be sent to the country:

“I am afraid [the Kofi Annan peace plan] might not succeed, but I really strongly hope it does succeed. But for this to happen, the deployment of the UN observers really [has to be] a rapid deployment. So far, very few are there.”

The organisation’s priorities are to:

• provide food for 100,000 people
• supply basic household items for 25,000
• and to restore public services such as water and electricity to 1.5 million

Despite their fantastic work, the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and two volunteers have been killed. Please donate now.

by Syria News Wire

The Syria News Wire is written from Damascus and London. It was the fourth Syrian blog to appear on the internet – back in 2004. It is a Lonely Planet favourite, award nominated, Toot-ified blog, which gets about 15,000 hits a month. In 2008, Damascus became the Arab Capital of Culture. The year was packed full of events. Every month, a programme was published – but it didn’t hit the streets until half the month had passed. In Damascus, that doesn’t matter. We find out what’s happening by word of mouth. And the same goes for news, or plans for the city’s development. This site puts some of those whispers on to the net. News from the streets of Damascus, and beyond.

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