Hanne Eide Mortensen (13.05.2016)
A historically high number of Syrians, displaced in Syria and in neighbouring countries, were assisted by NRC in 2015.
Altogether, NRC assisted over 1.8 million Syrians in 2015, according to NRC's annual report for last year.
“That’s more than any year since the war began,” says NRC’s Head of Social Policy Department, Harriet Rudd.
In total, we reached 5.4 million people with lifesaving and provident assistance in 2015, also a record-high number. In addition to major donors like Foreign Affairs, EU, including Swedish and British aid agencies. Increased funding from private sponsors and fundraising initiatives in Norway also contributed to achieving this result.
Several received education
A lot of the funds raised by the private donors have been earmarked for displaced Syrians in Syria and the neighbouring countries.
"With these funds, we have been able to step up our efforts to provide Syrian children with an education. Education for Syrian children is among the most important causes we can support today. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugee children are not attending school,” says Rudd.
We provide humanitarian aid to Syrians fleeing in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Northern-Iraq and Turkey, with all core activities represented.
Many serious crises
There were also many who earmarked their funds to help refugees in Europe.
“This helped us start our relief work in Chios in October,” says Rudd. “We have also used funds from fundraising for relief work in Serbia, in addition to sending out experts from our standby force, NORCAP, to Greece, Italy and Macedonia.”
Funds that are not earmarked, known as unrestricted funds, are used by NRC wherever the need is the greatest, at any given time.
“Syria gets the most attention, but unfortunately there are several large, serious humanitarian crises in the world today. Last year, people in need in countries like Mali, Colombia, Kenya, Palestine and Pakistan were assisted using unrestricted funds,” explains Rudd.
Earthquake in Nepal
Unrestricted funds are also used to establish new programs, or to get quickly into place when an acute crisis occurs.
“Unrestricted funds were essential for NRC to be able to start relief work in northern Nigeria, where over 2.2 million people have been displaced by a brutal conflict and violence,” says Rudd.
Unrestricted funds were also used to initiate relief work for Syrian refugees in Turkey, in addition to sending personnel from our standby force, NORCAP, to Nepal, after the earthquake, last April.
“Altogether, we have sent over 90 NORCAP-experts to the relief work in Nepal, and we still have several people on the ground there,” says Rudd.