Syria’s Civil War

A Strange, Sad, Surprising Reality of Syria at War Source, The New York Times

Over the past 7 years, Syria’s civil war has affected so many people around the world be it physically, mentally or emotionally. It’s certain that it would take a long while for the world, especially Syrians, to recover from this catastrophe.

Despite the duration of the war and the magnitude of destruction, not many people are highly aware of what’s going there and Floral Garage Singapore hopes to raise awareness of the situation while encouraging our readers to aid the families in Syria.

What Do You Need to Know About the Civil War?

• It started off in March 2011 when 15 boys were detained and presumably tortured for writing anti-government graffiti on their school wall. One of the boys, a 13-year-old, was killed due to their brutal torture.
• The citizens were appalled by the act of violence and retaliated by organizing a protest but it was shortly intervened by the military as they opened fires, killing hundreds and imprisoning many more.
• Initially, the protesters merely wanted democracy and freedom but when the government decided to execute those who were against the president’s ruling, the crowd was outraged and demanded Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad to step down.
• The fighting over the control of the country is between 2 different groups, soldiers who support Assad, and the Rebels, also known as the Islamic State (IS), who do not want Syria’s president to be in power anymore.
• As the fighting exacerbated in 2012, other countries got involved as well. With Iran and Russia supporting the Syrian government and the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia backing up the rebels – it was a clear start of a civil war the world will never forget.
• Many peace negotiations have been held between the Syrian governments and the Rebels to cease fire but at the end of the day, the decision is in the hands of Assad

How Has the Civil War Affected the Families in Syria?

• The war has now gone on longer than World War II and over 40% of refugee children can no longer go to school as the buildings have been destroyed and there is also a lack of teachers that could mentor them. They represent a generation of children that might be at risk of being uneducated.
• It has been estimated that based on the most recent statistics from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 511,000 people have been killed in the civil war that have been going since March 2011. 350,000 of the bodies were identified by their loved ones while the remaining bodies’ identity is still unknown.
• Those who weren’t killed/injured during the war would have suffered in other ways – losing their job, home or a loved one while also being traumatized from the horror the war brought to their country.
• 75% of children lack access to medical clinics across Syria thus, they have not received their vaccinations and are malnourished
• Many Syrians have fled to seek safety elsewhere in Syria or further. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as of February 2018, there are over 5 million internally displaced persons (IDP) within Syria’s borders.
• Despite the generous help neighbouring countries have given, it is not enough. The UN has said that 1 million people in Syria lack access to proper resources such as food, water and shelter. However, it would still be hard to aid the 6.5 million IDP who lives in areas that are hard to reach.

Where do Syrian Children Sleep Source: The Gospel Herland

How Can We Help?

Although we might not be able to physically give them a helping hand, there are other ways you can help the families in Syria recover from the war. Floral Garage Singapore has recently partnered with World Vision Singapore to help raise funds for those in need. In 2017, World Vision reached over 2.2 million people, including nearly 1.3 million children.

We hope to raise $5,000 or even more to help those in need and we would greatly appreciate your help!

Your donation would be used to:

1. Support feeding programs for undernourished refugee children
   • Further improvement in food assistance for families in Jordan as well as for children in school
   • Healthy food bars would be distributed to young refugee children who attend schools – proven to encourage them to attend school, increase in 10% school attendance since 2016 in Za’atari Camp and doubling since 2016 in Azraq Camp
2. Improve health services
   • Provide emergency health services and run mobile health clinics – proven to increase survival rates amongst babies and mothers
3. Aid early childhood education
   • World Vision runs early childhood education and child-friendly spaces for preschoolers
   • Provides psychosocial support for young children who are psychologically struggling from the war

Source: Massachusetts Peace Action, What do Syrians Want? What should we do?

How Can You Donate?

1. Visit the funding page
2. Click “Donate Now”
3. Indicate how much you would like to donate (Any amount is greatly appreciated)
4. Fill in the necessary details

**Payment either by PayPal, Debit or Credit Card

Floral Garage Singapore Will Support You

– Floral Garage Singapore would be personally donating $1 for every $10 donated,
– Get a discount code to thank you for your sincere donation. The discount code would be 10% of the amount you have donated.

       For example, if you were to donate $50, you would receive $5 off our products on our website

– Screenshot the confirmation email of your donation sent by World Vision. WhatsApp the screenshot to receive your personalized discount code!

Floral Garage Singapore and World Vision Singapore strongly believe that every single donation, no matter the amount, is very valuable and would be greatly appreciated especially by the family in Syria. As an individual, we might not be able to change the world but we are able to change someone else’s world and that would make all the difference in the world.

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world”

Click here to learn more about how World Vision hopes to help those in need!

DONATE NOW

Get in touch with Floral Garage Singapore:

WhatsApp: 9387 8871

Call: 6282 2813

Email: floralgaragesg@gmail.com

Website: https://floralgaragesg.com/