Syria

After more than 14 years of crisis, children in Syria continue to face immense hardship. While the country is experiencing a period of transition, humanitarian needs remain severe, with millions of children affected by displacement, poverty, disrupted services and ongoing insecurity. Across Syria, families are struggling to meet basic needs as repeated displacement, economic collapse and damaged infrastructure continue to impact daily life.

Humanitarian needs remain severe and underfunded. Urgent, flexible support is essential to keep life-saving assistance running, protect children and help keep families safe and together— especially in areas affected by new displacement, service disruption, and explosive ordnance risks. The economic deterioration, currency collapse, and price rises have contributed to a situation in which there are humanitarian needs in every single part of Syria today.

Save the Children has been working in Syria since 2012 to support children and families affected by prolonged crisis, displacement and instability and helping communities recover and rebuild wherever access allows. In July 2025, Save the Children established a new Syria National Office, expanding our presence through main offices in Damascus, Aleppo, Raqqa, and Qamishli to improve coordination and deliver timely, life-saving assistance.

An estimated 16.7 million people, including 7.5 million children, currently need humanitarian assistance in Syria. Over 6 million people remain internally displaced, many of them having been forced to flee multiple times. Rates of malnutrition, disease, and disability have increased markedly throughout the crisis.

Children report feeling afraid, anxious, and sad, with many showing signs of emotional distress and toxic stress. Many children have lost parents, siblings, or other close relatives. Education disruption remains severe across Syria 2.5 million children are out of school, depriving them of basic skills and a protective environment leaving them at risk of being forced into child labour or child marriage.

Recent escalations in northern and northeastern Syria have once again uprooted families, placing further strain on already overstretched services. Thousands of children have been displaced in recent months, many arriving in camps or collective shelters with few belongings and limited access to shelter, heating, food or clean water.

Our work focuses on ensuring that every child in Syria can survive, learn and be protected, even in the most challenging circumstances. We provide life-saving humanitarian assistance alongside early recovery support to help restore essential services and protect children’s wellbeing. Since the start of our response, we have reached more than 11 million people, including over 5 million children, with essential services and support.

Our work combines emergency response with early recovery to help restore basic services that have been strained by more than fourteen years of crisis. We provide food and nutrition support to ensure children are healthy and well nourished and help families find sustainable incomes to meet their needs.

Our work also raises awareness of child protection issues. We provide mental health and psychosocial support for the most marginalised and vulnerable children, including unaccompanied and separated children. Through our family tracing and reunification work, we help reunite children that have been separated from their families. We focus on inclusion, diversity and gender. And we advocate for child-centered early recovery in Syria, which puts the needs of children and their communities at the heart of recovery and rehabilitation.