##SAVESYRIA##..##PRAYFORSYRIA##

Every minute I spend alone is filled with guilt and helplessness seeing the countless little kids, many innocent men and women dying in Syria. As cliched as it may sound, These kids are supposed to be in their playgrounds & schools, they should be with their parents warm in beds, protected & happy. But instead they’re on roads in dirt, attacked by BOMBS, like seriously bombs.

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SYRIA
Syria is a middle eastern nation with a small strip of Mediterranean coastline. Its overall area is a little smaller than the United Kingdom. Syria first became an independent nation in 1945 and has been formally known as the Arab Republic of Syria since 1991.

Though it has pretences of being democratic, Syria has been led by the al-Assad family for 45 years. Hafez al-Assad ruled from 1970 to 2000. His first son died in a car crash and his second, Bashar al-Assad, has been president since 2000.
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The Syrian conflict has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been killed or forced to flee their homes.

Families are struggling to survive inside Syria, or make a new home in neighboring countries. Others are risking their lives on the way to Europe, hoping to find acceptance and opportunity. And harsh winters and hot summers make life as a refugee even more difficult. At times, the effects of the conflict can seem overwhelming

THE CRISIS:HOW IT ALL BEGAN.
Anti-government demonstrations began in March of 2011, as part of the Arab Spring. But the peaceful protests quickly escalated after the government's violent crackdown, and armed opposition groups began fighting back.

Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.
The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country.

Opposition supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas.

By July, army defectors had loosely organized the Free Syrian Army and many civilian Syrians took up arms to join the opposition. Divisions between secular and religious fighters, and between ethnic groups, continue to complicate the politics of the conflict..

Since March 2011, conflict has devastated Syria. Now it is internationally recognized as the largest refugee and displacement crisis of our time. The Syrian civil war has set back the national standard of living by decades — now that healthcare, schools, and water and sanitation systems have been damaged or destroyed.

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HOW WORSE IT HAS BEEN NOW
Syrian children and families have witnessed unspeakable violence and bear the brunt of the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, 5.1 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees, and 6.3 million Syrians are displaced within the country. Half of those affected are children.

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The war has killed more than 500,000 people in the almost seven years since it began. Crowded cities have been destroyed and horrific human rights violations are widespread. Basic necessities like food and medical care are sparse.

The U.N. estimates that 6.1 million people are internally displaced. When you also consider refugees, well over half of the country’s pre-war population of 22 million is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, whether they still remain in the country or have escaped across the borders.

Some of the worst violence we’ve seen over the course of the crisis is taking place right now in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta region, just northeast of the capital of Damascus.

Eastern Ghouta has been under siege since 2013. Some 400,000 people are trapped here, with limited resources and no way to flee the conflict.

In the past few days, escalating violence has left more than 400 people dead and at least 1,400 injured.

Each day, the situation grows more dire, and residents have little to no access to food, medicine or sanitary supplies. This year’s hard, cold winter has made conditions even worse. Bread prices have skyrocketed to almost 22 times the national average, and the region is suffering from some of the highest levels of child malnutrition reported throughout the crisis.

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WHAT CONDITION ARE THE SYRIAN REFUGEES IN?
Some Syrians know people in neighboring countries who they can stay with. But many host families were already struggling on meager incomes and do not have the room or finances to help as the crisis drags on.

Refugees find shelter wherever they can. Our teams have seen families living in rooms with no heat or running water, in abandoned chicken coops and in storage sheds.

Most refugees must find a way to pay rent, even for derelict structures. Without any legal way to work in Jordan and Lebanon, they struggle to find odd jobs and accept low wages that often don’t cover their most basic needs. The situation is slightly better in the Kurdish Autonomous region of northern Iraq, where Syrian Kurds can legally work, but opportunities are now limited because of the conflict there. And language is still a barrier.

The lack of clean water and sanitation in crowded, makeshift settlements is an urgent concern. Diseases can easily spread — even more life-threatening without enough medical services. Reports indicate that as much as 35 percent of the population is currently relying on unsafe sources to meet daily water needs. In some areas with the largest refugee populations, water shortages have reached emergency levels; the supply has been as low as 22 liters per person per day — less than one-tenth of what the average American uses.

The youngest refugees face an uncertain future. Some schools have been able to divide the school day into two shifts and make room for more Syrian students. But there is simply not enough space for all the children, and many families cannot afford the transportation to get their kids to school.

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