With its spacious, clean, sunlit rooms and bright, colourful decorations, this World Vison Child-Friendly Space in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, offers a stark contrast to the tent settlements and dreary housing where the Syrian refugee children live Photo/World Vision/Jon Warren)
(January 07, 2015) –
MISSISSAUGA, ON — The Government of Canada has announced $90 million in additional humanitarian funding for the refugee crises in Syria and Iraq. As part of this announcement, World Vision Canada has received $2.3 million for our humanitarian relief work in northern Iraq, which involves providing essential supplies and cash assistance to people who have fled the conflict zones.
The following quotes can be attributed to Dave Toycen, the president and CEO of World Vision Canada.
“World Vision is grateful for the support announced today by the Government of Canada for our work with displaced Iraqis who have fled conflict within their own borders. With winter storms battering the Middle East, these displaced people, particularly the children, are extremely vulnerable. Many of them left their homes with little or no warm clothing. World Vision will use these funds to provide warm clothing, money and other supplies to children and families in need. It will also allow us to deploy our technologically advanced Last Mile Mobile Solution system to ensure that the distributions of these materials are done as efficiently and effectively as possible.”
“Although the conflict in Iraq no longer dominates the headlines as it once did, the problems facing the people who have fled the fighting are getting worse. More than 400,000 people have fled their homes into the relatively safe areas of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. World Vision and other humanitarian agencies are continuing to do everything we can to ensure that children and their families receive essential supplies to help them through the difficult months ahead.”
“World Vision calls on the Government of Canada to continue to urge all sides in the Iraqi conflict to protect the rights of children and ensure that humanitarian aid agencies have access to people in need. Canada should also continue to fund programs that provide essentials like food, water and shelter, but also education and psychosocial support for children affected by the conflict. We must be there to help the children of Iraq today, tomorrow and for the months and years to come to ensure that they don’t become another lost generation.”