Sanaa Al Khalaf has a year and two months, lives in the field of refugees in Parisha, near the Syrian city of Idlib, in the north of the country, and the doctor of a health center located six kilometers from its precarious refuge has just announced to its mother that it suffers acute malnutrition. “I did not get to breastfeed her and I cannot afford to buy formula milk for my daughter because she is very expensive and we are poor. The food with starch cooked with sugar or boiled rice, but is not enough,” explains his mother to this newspaper, replaced Khalaf, distressed and still looking at the girl.
According to UNICEF, more than 500,000 Syrian children under five suffer potentially deadly malnutrition, while another two million are about to be malnourished.
“I cannot afford to buy the necessary medications to treat my daughter. I live with my husband and my five children in very difficult conditions and in the midst of great instability. We fail to give our little food, water, refuge and medical care,” he continues to Khalaf. The woman explains that the majority of children in the countryside do not eat meat or fruit, they are hungry and are weak. “My children ask for meat, but we don’t have how to buy it,” he laments.
The hunger figures in Syria are increasing due to fund cuts, progressive for years, but alarming now, after the decision of the United States and other donor countries to cut their cooperation funds, according to data gathered by a group of humanitarian organizations that work in Syria and reproduced by the UN in April. The impact is already being felt throughout the country and the clinics that have not been forced to close are overflowing. The NGO Save The Children denounced in April that a third of its nutrition support programs in Syria had had to be suspended.
“These closures arrive in the worst possible time. The needs in Syria are higher than ever and, nevertheless, the necessary funds are being suppressed to help the children. It is not just about figures, they are real children, real lives, to which it is allowed to die,” said Boxha, responsible for the NGO in Syria, where Bachar el Asad was overthrown in December after more than a decade of a decade.
Historically, “Syria has never had child malnutrition problems,” said Yasmine Lababidi, head of the World Food Program and School Food Team (PMA) in Damascus. Even in the middle of the conflict, the children remained relatively protected, thanks, in large part, to the sacrifices that adults have made in these years. But after the very long conflict, the economic collapse, a worldwide pandemic, the devastating earthquake of 2023 and the consequences of the conflict in Lebanon in the last months of 2024, the situation in Syria has changed drastically, according to this UN Organization.
Work in the field and earn three dollars a day (2.7 euros). So I have to ask for money to my relatives to feed my children
Farida Al Alloush, Syria mother
The PMA estimates that in the country there are 13 million people, that is, more than half of the population, which go hungry. But in 2024, PMA only managed to attend 3.6 million people in Syria, that is, 49% less than the previous year, due to the fund cuts. This organization warned a few weeks ago that without new funds will have to interrupt food assistance to one million people who need it.
Nine out of 10 people in poverty
Alaa’s father to Sayed, a four -year -old boy who lives in Maarath al Numan, in southern Idlib, died in the war in 2023. This loss caused family resources to decrease significantly and hunger broke into their lives. The weight and height of Alaa are well below the average of their age and the child suffers weakness and constant dizziness. A doctor reviewed him and determined that he was due to hunger. “My son needs drugs and nutritional supplements, but I can’t afford to buy them because our economic situation has worsened after the death of my husband,” says her mother, Farida al Alloush. “I work in the field and win three dollars a day (2.7 euros), which are not enough for our basic needs. So I have to ask my relatives to feed my children,” he adds, explaining that sometimes they can only eat once a day, at the end of the afternoon.
Putting a food plate with all necessary nutrients is a load that too many families cannot assume today
Ali al Qassem, pediatrician
Chronic malnutrition causes irreversible damage to the physical and cognitive development of children, has an impact on their learning and productivity capacity, with consequences that can affect them for the rest of their lives. “A generation of children in Syria is paying the price of the war with their health, diminished by hunger, disease, poverty or displacements,” insists Ali Al Qassem, a pediatrician in Aleppo, in northern Syria.
According to UNICEF, at this time nine out of 10 people live below the poverty threshold. The lack of nutrients begins with breastfeeding, insufficient or interrupted due to the conflict or the poor diet of mothers, this doctor estimates, who also warns of the too fast introduction of cow’s milk in the feeding of babies, which generates in many cases allergies, diarrhea or anemias.
Dr. Hala Daud, head of the Nutrition Program of the Syrian Health Ministry, settles and explains that many Syrian women suffer from malnutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which deprives a large percentage of them to breastfeed their children, but at the same time they do not have economic means to buy powdered milk.
“Many people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid to eat and lack vegetables, fruits and meat in their meals. Putting a plate of food with all the necessary nutrients is a load that too many families cannot assume today,” concludes the Qassem.
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