WASHINGTON, June 1 ( RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova – Western sanctions on Middle Eastern countries, such as Syria, cause more damage than good by standing on the way of children’s rights activists, Rasha Muhrez, head of SOS Children's Villages Emergency Programme in Syria told RIA Novosti on the International Children’s Day, celebrated globally on Sunday.
"Sometimes, we have money problems. For example, a problem with money transfers from Europe because of the sanctions and political decisions. We are more affected by political decisions than by the problems inside Syria. If there is a decision by the European Union to stop fund transfers, then we are in trouble,” she said.
The organization has worked in Syria for 33 years, and has learned to accumulate funds in case of sanctions. But they are only enough for a couple of months, Muhrez said.
“We try to find solutions all the time. When there is a problem with fund transfer, we have local reserves. We always try to have reserveы that will at least cover the costs of food and transportation for two or three months. Children don’t need to suffer from this,” she said.
SOS Children's Villages is an international NGO that has been helping victims of the war, abandoned and orphaned children in so-called “villages” around the world for 65 years. In Syria, it has a village in Damascus with 15 family houses and 180 children.
“In areas where the conflict is very intense, children are trained to fight, they don’t have a regular access to proper food and nutritional items. There is a big problem with education. There are many children who could not go to school for the last three years. They are facing a lot of problems in Syria,” she said.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world for children. The organization estimates that over 5 million Syrian children are currently at risk, twice as many as last year. More than 1 million have been forced to seek refuge outside Syria, with 2.8 million no longer in schools.
The military conflict in Syria has been ongoing since March 2011. According to United Nations' estimates, over 130,000 people have died in the conflict, which has seen fierce battles between the Syrian army and armed militants, including foreign mercenaries.
