Food security & Livelihoods
The decade-long crisis has had a devastating socioeconomic impact on millions of Syrians, reducing purchasing power and depriving them of basic services and the ability to meet their basic needs. It has also severely limited employment opportunities, further increasing poverty and vulnerability. The average food basket in Syria cost 247 per cent more in October 2020 than at the same time in 2019. Spiralling food costs have pushed even more people into food insecurity: by July 2020 some 9.3 million people did not know where their next meal was coming from.1
Deep inside Syria, Islamic Relief has been providing food and freshly baked bread, reaching over 720,000 people in 2020. Nearly 108,000 people benefitted from food parcels distributed at Ramadan, while qurbani meat reached almost 61,000 individuals at Eid al-Adha.
Syrian refugees in neighbouring Turkey received support through our agriculture-based livelihood programme. Aiming to build the resilience of vulnerable families, we are enabling 450 households to improve their livelihoods and access to food. Altogether, over 2,100 people have so far embarked on life-changing agriculture and beekeeping enterprises and vocational skills development
“We rise by helping others”
“I could not find a job here because this city is small and has a large number of Syrians. I cannot leave my children at home and be away from them for a long time,” says Hoda, one of at least 5.6 million people to have fled Syria since the crisis began.
She and her young children endured squalid conditions in one of Syria’s many camps for displaced people, before crossing the Turkish border in a bid for safety. Living in Hatay, they faced gruelling poverty as Hoda, a widow, struggled to find work until Islamic Relief intervened.
“Now I work in the greenhouse that Islamic Relief provided for us,” says the mother-of-four, describing the support she received to help her earn a reliable living. She was given crops to maintain and sell for a profit. “I originally come from an agricultural area, yet they provided further training for me also. I help my friends in the project and teach them what I know.”
“Now I work in the greenhouse that Islamic Relief provided for us,” says the mother-of-four, describing the support she received to help her earn a reliable living. She was given crops to maintain and sell for a profit. “I originally come from an agricultural area, yet they provided further training for me also. I help my friends in the project and teach them what I know.”
Hoda’s family are one of 450 in the area to receive help through agriculture, beekeeping and vocational development support projects provided by Islamic Relief. Many of these families have been given plots of land so they can plant tomatoes, strawberries and sustain beehives, offering a reliable source of food and income.