Half a million malnutrites in Syria: “A generation of children is paying the price of the war with their health” | Future planet
Sanaa at Khalaf is one year and two months, he lives in the field of refugees in Parisha, near the Syrian city of Idlib, in the north of the country, and the doctor of a health center located six kilometers from his precarious refuge has just announced to his mother who suffers acute malnutrition. “I was unable to breastfeed her and I can’t afford to buy formula milk for my daughter because she is very expensive and we are poor. The food with starch cooked with sugar or boiled rice, but it is not enough,” explains her mother to this newspaper, replaced Khalaf, distressed and still looking at the girl.
According to UNICEF, More than 500,000 Syrian children Children under five suffer from potentially fatal malnutrition, while two more million are about to be malnourished.
“I cannot afford to buy the drugs necessary to treat my daughter. I live with my husband and my five children in very difficult conditions and in the middle of great instability. We cannot give our little food, water, refuge and medical care”, continues to Khalaf. The woman explains that most children in the countryside do not eat meat or fruit, are hungry and are weak. “My children ask for meat, but we don’t have how to buy it,” he complains.
The figures of hunger in Syria are increasing due to the cuts to funds, progressive for years, but alarming now, after the decision of the United States and other donor countries to cut their cooperation funds, according to data raised by a group of humanitarian organizations that work in Syria Reproduced by the United Nations in April. The impact has already been warned throughout the country and the clinics that have not been forced to close are overflowing. The Save the Children NGO denounced in April that a third of its nutritional support programs in Syria had to be suspended.
“These closures come as far as possible. The needs in Syria are higher than ever and, however, the necessary funds are suppressed to help children. These are not only figures, they are real children, real lives, which is allowed to die,” said Boxhaha, head of the NGO in Syria, where Bachar El Asad has been overrated as dececes in December in December in December in December in December in December in December. December in December After more than a decade of bloody civil war.
Historically, “Syria has never had problems with the malnutrition of the children,” said Yasmine Lababidi, head of the World Food Program and School Food Team (PMA) in Damascus. Even in the middle of the conflict, the children remained relatively protected, thanks, largely, to the sacrifices that adults have made in recent years. But after the long conflict, the economic collapse, a world pandemic, the devastating earthquake of 2023 and the consequences of the conflict in Lebanon in the last months of 2024, the situation in Syria has changed drastically, according to this organization of the United Nations.
Work on the field and earn three dollars a day (2.7 euros). So I have to ask my relatives money to feed my children
Farida at Allaush, mother Syria
The PMA estimates that in the country there are 13 million people, that is, more than half of the population, who suffer hungry. But in 2024, PMA He managed to attend only 3.6 million people In Syria, i.e. 49% less than the previous year, due to the cuts to the funds suffered. This organization He warned a few weeks ago that without new funds You will have to stop food assistance to one million people who need it.
Nine out of 10 people in poverty
Alaa’s father in Sayed, a four -year -old boy who lives in Maarath at Numan, in the south of Idlib, died in war in 2023. This loss made family resources significantly decreased and hunger had become entered their lives. Alaa’s weight and height are well below the average of their age and the child undergoes weakness and constant dizziness. A doctor examined him and established that he was due to hunger. “My son needs drugs and nutritional supplements, but I can’t afford to buy them because our economic situation has worsened after the death of my husband,” says his mother, Farida alush. “Field work and I win three dollars a day (2.7 euros), which are not enough for our basic needs. So I have to ask my relatives to feed my children”, he adds, explaining that they can sometimes eat only once a day, at the end of the afternoon.
Putting a food dish with all the necessary nutrients is a load that too many families cannot take today
Ali al priest, pediara
Chronic malnutrition causes irreversible damage to the physical and cognitive development of children, has an impact on their learning and productivity skills, with consequences that can influence them for the rest of their life. “A generation of children in Syria is paying the price of the war with their health, decreased for hunger, disease, poverty or movements”, insists Ali al Qassem, a pediatrician in Aleppo, in northern Syria.
According to UNICEF, right now Nine out of 10 people They live under the poverty threshold. The lack of nutrients begins with breastfeeding, insufficient or interrupted due to the conflict or bad diet of mothers, this doctor, which also feels the too fast introduction of cow’s milk in the feeding of children, which generates allergies, diarrhea or anemias in many cases.
Dr. Hala Daud, head of the nutritional program of the Syrian Ministry of Health, deposits and explains that many Syrian women suffer from malnutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which deprives a great percentage to breastfeed their children, but at the same time they do not have economic means to buy milk powder.
“Many people in Syria depend on Humanitarian help to eat And they lack vegetables, fruit and meat in their meals. Putting a food dish with all the necessary nutrients is a load that too many families cannot take today “, concludes Qassem.
