Damascus, Aug. 27 (SANA) Syria’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and UNICEF launched an integrated social protection program Thursday that will provide cash assistance and essential services to vulnerable families with children across 11 Syrian provinces.
The Cash Plus (+Cash) program, launched at an event in al-Kiswah in Damascus Countryside, targets families with children ages 0 to 17 facing economic hardship, food insecurity, health challenges or child protection risks.
In 2026, the program aims to reach 41,785 families, including 208,928 people and 94,825 children, across Aleppo, Idleb, Hasakah, Raqqa, Hama, Deir Ezzor, Latakia, Damascus Countryside, Sweida, Daraa and Quneitra.
Under the program, local Social Affairs and Labor directorates will register families and verify their eligibility. Cash assistance will be distributed through financial service providers, while participating families will be connected to health, nutrition, education and child protection services based on their children’s needs.
The initiative is intended to meet families’ immediate needs while improving children’s well-being and building the institutional systems and evidence needed for a nationally led social protection and cash transfer system.
Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat said the program is part of that broader effort rather than a stand-alone assistance project. Families enrolled in it will be added to a national social protection database that the ministry began developing in February and which had registered more than 20,000 families by July.
Kabawat said experience gained in targeting beneficiaries, making payments and referring families to services would help form the basis of a national cash transfer program, moving from fragmented assistance toward a national system.
She said families with children were being prioritized because years of war had left many households without stable incomes or safety nets, contributing to school dropout, malnutrition and child labor.
Kabawat stressed that cash assistance would address immediate expenses such as food, medicine, rent and schooling, while referrals to health, nutrition, education and protection services would address other dimensions of poverty.
She said beneficiaries would be selected under clear criteria, family data would remain confidential, payments would be accessible and secure, and a complaints mechanism would be available.
The program follows two other social protection initiatives launched in May: Syria’s National Early Childhood Development Strategy 2026-2030, developed with UNICEF and covering children through age 8, particularly children with disabilities; and the Tanmo nutrition-sensitive social protection program launched with the World Food Program.
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