Picture: UNICEF/Nicky Jansen

Earlier this year UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaking
in Kuwait, warned that Syria’s children continue to suffer on what he called “a
scale that haunts the soul”.

(Article dated October 2015) More than four years since the Syria crisis began in 2011,
stories depicting families desperately seeking refuge have now become common
place in the headlines of the worldwide press. Men, women and children cross
borders into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, attempting dangerous journeys,
facing terrible uncertainty. What is and always has been a human story – a
human crisis, is now being portrayed as such, on social media and in the pages
of international newspapers. Heart-breaking images show the innocent victims of
the ongoing civil war.

As of September 2015 the number of Syrians in Turkey reached
1,938,999. Alarmingly, 1,050,937 are children. (Source: UNICEF). In 2013, Soroptimists from the Netherlands became aware of
the situation and the shocking extent of the suffering. “The Syria crisis was
clearly devastating for all those involved”, says Margit van Hoeve, SI Gouda,
Netherlands. “People were being deprived of so very much and it was important
to us that we did not sit back and watch children be deprived of their future”.
Members of SI Gouda and I made a decision that we must do something”.

Doing something for this group of Soroptimists meant
actively seeking out opportunities; finding a means to make a difference.
A meeting with UNICEF Netherlands and UNICEF Turkey became the turning point
and lead to a partnership; a way forward for Soroptimists to actively focus
their activities and assist those caught up in the crisis.Syria ‘Back to School’ launched in 2014 and is set to run until 2016.

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