COVID-19: A New War in Syria
Message from Herve Matine from poster for Tomorrow:
We have been in contact with the Syrian Child Protection Network (Hurras), local based NGO working in Syria since 2012. They provide protection to Syrian children, the people most affected by the war. What they told us has inspired us to take immediate action.
As the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, Syrians brace for yet another disaster on top of the devastation caused by nine years of war. Idlib is currently the area most affected by the conflict. Daily bombing and shelling have displaced almost one million people from their homes in the space of just a few months. Currently there are approximately 189,000 displaced children in north-west Syria, of which 62,000 live in refugee camps and temporary shelters. The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unexpected, additional threat to the already extremely fragile lives of many Syrian families.
Based on global transmission rates, the Early Warning and Alert Response Network (EWARN) predicts that between 40 and 70% of the population in north-west Syria could become infected with COVID-19 – between 1.6 and 2.8 million people. But given the situation in Idlib, it’s impossible for people to combat the virus in the normal ways: how do you self-isolate in a crowded refugee camp? How do you wash your hands if there’s no soap? And how can get you get treated if the healthcare system is broken? Because since December 2019 more than 84 hospitals and medical facilities in north-west Syria have been damaged, destroyed, or forced to close their doors due to violence or mass shortages.
In these circumstances the only possible way to combat COVID-19 in Syria is to educate refugees on good hygiene and isolation practice in the hope of slowing down and ward off contagion.
We are going to help them to produce essential sanitary packs and distribute posters and leaflets that promote good hygiene – but we need your help to do this.
How you can help?
1. Buy sanitary packs for Idlib.
These essential supplies will include soaps, towels and an illustrated information guide.
Initially, Hurras Network aimed to create 500 kits. Given the number of children and families at risk, this was never going to be enough. With your help we hope to create 10, 000 kits or more.
We will open a KissKissBankBank account to receive donations for essential supplies of soap and sanitary packs in Syria. Every donation will save lives, so please give what you can. The KissKissBankBank account will also be open for donations to prepare, adapt, print and distribute posters and information packs across Syria.
2. Make a poster.
Use you talent! We need artists, illustrators and designers to create posters that show how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With the help of Hurras Network and the people who donate to our KissKissBankBank campaign, we will be able to distribute posters and illustrated information packs throughout north-west Syria. These posters and information packs will promote personal hygiene and hand washing; encourage social separation (that includes isolating the elderly in separate tents); change social habits and enforce quarantine. These posters will save lives.
Please note that speed and quality are essential.
We need simple, informative and engaging visual materials that will convince children to change their habits – and we need them now. You can find the design brief here.
We need simple, informative and engaging visual materials that will convince children to change their habits – and we need them now. You can find the design brief here.
