Damascus, Jan. 4 (SANA) Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat met on Sunday with representatives of NGOs in the humanitarian field to discuss emergency response mechanisms for families in camps in northern Syria impacted by the recent severe polar weather system affecting the region.
During the meeting at the ministry headquarters, officials presented updated figures showing 119,919 affected families in Idlib, with more than 650,000 people live in 35 camps, 60,964 families in the Aleppo countryside, and 500 families in Hama. The identified needs include cash assistance, water and food supplies, sanitation maintenance, sponsorship for widows and orphans, heating supplies, education, and other essential services. Participants agreed to dispatch an aid convoy to the affected areas in the coming days.
Kabawat underscored the importance of coordinated government action alongside civil society organizations to ease the hardship facing camp residents and ensure aid reaches beneficiaries quickly and through simplified procedures. The minister also stressed the need for field visits to assess conditions and requirements in detail, with the aim of ending displacement and returning families to their homes as soon as possible.
Safwan al-Hamwi, treasurer of the Union of Charitable Associations in Damascus and its countryside, urged cooperation to secure prefabricated, modular temporary housing units for use in disaster response.
Representatives of charities and NGOs also called for easing administrative and paperwork procedures to speed aid delivery, particularly for assistance arriving from abroad through border crossings. They urged work based on accurate databases and statistics, and enhanced healthcare through fixed and mobile medical clinics.
Displaced families in northern Syria’s camps have been living for years in camps after being forced to leave their homes due to armed attacks and the forced displacement policies pursued by the ousted Assad regime. The vast majority of these families still reside today in temporary makeshift shelters, amid weak infrastructure and limited resources facing harsh weather conditions and other humanitarian challenges.
