Justine Greening: Syria’s children are in urgent need of our help

Syrian children in refugee camps can’t help but listen for the bombs that shattered their childhoods. In a camp in Jordan earlier this year, relief workers told me that children automatically dive for cover at the sound of any plane. They may have escaped the war zone but they still bear the physical and mental scars.

These children have become the face of a brutal conflict that has so far claimed more than 100,000 lives and forcibly displaced more than one-third of Syria’s population. Children have been killed, beaten, shot at and sexually abused. They have lost their homes, their schools, their friends and, in some cases, their families. If the last months have been traumatic, the future they face is no less bleak.

Earlier this week, I met British surgeon David Nott, the courageous doctor who first revealed to the world that snipers had deliberately targeted unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs. He has recently returned from volunteering in a Syrian hospital where the small number of medical staff still there are working against desperate odds, without enough supplies or equipment.

More than one million children, some without parents or close relatives, have fled Syria’s borders to escape the bloodshed. They are homeless, destitute, traumatised by the things they have seen and painfully vulnerable. Some children are unaccompanied and alone. There are reports that girls as young as 13 have been given in marriage by families trying to reduce the numbers of mouths to feed, or in the hope of protecting girls from sexual violence.

Organisations such as Unicef are making a huge difference to these children’s lives. Today I am announcing that we will use Aid Match to support Unicef’s work, matching public donations to its Syrian children appeal pound for pound. This funding will help provide clean water, food, vaccinations, education and trauma counselling for vulnerable Syrian children.

It is neither right nor sensible for the UK to stand by while a whole generation of children is lost to this conflict. In the past month I have announced more than £30 million for the Lost Generation initiative to provide protection, trauma care and counselling for vulnerable children who need it and basic educational supplies for Syrian children who have been out of school for up to two years. London students will also be among the first to join our new Connecting Classrooms initiative, which gives further support to Syrian children by linking UK schools with refugee schools in Lebanon and Jordan.

This winter, Syrian children will need our help more than ever. They will face freezing temperatures with little in the way of clothes and blankets. Many of the makeshift camps hosting refugees will be covered with snow.

As the situation in Syria deteriorates further, the number of refugees will mount. Syria’s neighbours have so far shown incredible generosity in opening their borders but their services are stretched to breaking point. The rest of the world needs to step up to the plate.

This conflict, now in its third year, has already affected four million children, the vast majority aged under 14. For Syrian children the horror won’t stop unless the world heeds their cries. And this is why our government and charities such as Unicef are working so hard to help them.