- If you’ve taken some time to watch the atrocious results of the chemical gas attack on Syrian citizens in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib this week, I’m sure you’ve spent some time feeling as outraged and helpless and heartbroken as I have and wondering how to help the Syrian victims.
Doing something positive has always made me feel somewhat less helpless, and gives me a constructive way to channel my feelings, even if it’s just donating a few dollars where I can.
Two nights ago, I found a brilliant Twitter thread from Eeman Abbasi, a Muslim-American student at the University of Connecticut and a founder of More than 10K.
The thread is packed with outstanding resources. I urge you to click over to her account @eemi for continued updates and resources; but here, I’m going to lay out the amazingly comprehensive list of organizations she shared, as well as others I love, all of which would be so grateful for any support at all that you can offer.
Edited to add: A few more organization suggestions have been rolling in since we first published, and we’ll update with some additions below. How grateful we are to know so many people are dedicating themselves to so much good — and that includes our readers sharing other tips with us.
Top photo: Save the Children
SYRIAN SUPPORT ON THE GROUND
Photo: Syria Civil Defense
Médicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) is of course one of our go-to relief orgs for nearly any global crisis, as they deploy trained medical professionals where they’re most direly needed.
Syria Civil Defense (also The White Helmets) are 3,300 volunteer search and rescue workers from local communities, risking their lives on the ground.
Islamic Relief USA does great work all over the world, but their efforts in Syria and neighboring countries have served nearly 10 million over the years, providing food, medical aid, water, blankets, mattresses, clothing, and more.
The Syrian American Medical Society is another non-political, medical relief non-profit working on the front lines of Syria and neighboring countries to provide medical assistance.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WORKING WITH SYRIAN REFUGEES IN CAMPS
Photo: Karam
Karam Foundation is a 10-year-old non-profit I’m so happy to discover, if only just know. They fund projects focused on “smart aid,” innovative education and sustainable business development. What’s fantastic is that all their overhead is covered in other ways, so 100% of the donations you make toward their programs goes right to Syrian children and families. Plus, it’s run by an impressive young team, most of whom are Syrian-American women.
Sunrise USA is a leading provider of humanitarian aid to Syria. Just $40 provides a food basket to the most needed areas.
Project Amal ouSalam is a grassroots organization that focuses on innovative educational and social programming for Syrian refugee and displaced children.
Hands for Syria is a UK based charity providing medical and humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians.
Medical Teams International, based in Portland, OR, is a global health org with a focus on disaster and refugee relief. Right now, they have two big initiatives focusing on supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon and European countries.
SMALLER LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS FOCUSED ON SYRIAN RESETTLEMENT OR REFUGEE CAMPS
Photo: IRIS
IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services) has a lot of initiatives, but one big way to help is to co-sponsor a refugee family resettling in the United States.
Connecticut Anchor was formed by local students to help create donations and a volunteer network dedicated to resettling families in Connecticut.
More Than 10K, cofounded by Eeman Abbasi who put together this fabulous list, advocates for those Syrian refugees relocating in the US, to ease the transition and help create autonomy for them.
Church World Service is a long running, faith-based org that engages congregations and individuals to take action, volunteer, communicate with elected officials and more, and their current initiative provides services to newly settled refugees in Greensboro.
HIAS is a global Jewish non-profit helping to protect, advocate for, and resettle refugees (and in fact the creators of the printable Hamilton Haggadah we recently featured suggested a donation to them in exchange for the free PDF.)
NB: Especially with Passover coming up this week, a lot of observant Jewish families are taking this as an opportunity to connect their support for the refugee crisis with the Passover story, even incorporating the terrible modern-day stories of exodus into their seders.
A SOLID CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN TO HELP THE CHILDREN OF SYRIA
From Laila Alawa (@lunainlife), who combines tech, media, and advocacy smarts through her publication The Tempest, I found a terrific crowdfunding initiative.
New England based NuDay Syria needs immediate help with medical efforts, humanitarian aid and food specifically for children impacted by the deadly attack; and your donations have immediate impact. Even $5 through their Lazoo fundraiser helps.
Looking around the site, I love the impact they’re making truly from a grassroots level. I also am moved by their description of their focus as “empowerment and aid with dignity to Syria’s mothers and children as well as building bridges from our families here in the US to families inside Syria.”
GLOBAL ORGS THAT DO GOOD IN SYRIA AND BEYOND
Five international organizations are working on the Syria crisis together, having just issued a joint press release about the situation, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention them all here.
Graphic: CARE
CARE International is often the first on the ground in a humanitarian crisis, and this fact sheet (PDF) about their work with Syrian refugees around Europe through the years-long crisis is astounding.
International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a favorite of mine, providing lifesaving support, health care, education, and more to over 1 million people across Syria, nearly half of them children.
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRO) is an independent humanitarian organization that helps those around the world forced to flee their communities. This personal essay on their site about the changes in Syria, including then/now photos, is an excellent read.
Oxfam International has many ways to take action if you can’t donate, including fundraising, hosting a hunger banquet, creating art for Oxfam, or writing to Congress.
Save the Children has helped more than 3.3 million people in Syria since 2012, more than two-thirds of them children. (Photo, above) They have lots of ways to help, and break down the impact of donations: $50 provides warm blankets for 10 children, $100 provides care and counseling for the most vulnerable children.
EVEN MORE ORGANIZATIONS HELPING IN SYRIA
With thanks to readers, commenters, friends and Facebook fans
ShelterBox USA (above) is another organization I’m really happy to discover. They partner with other trusted non-profits specifically to create shelter for refugee and displacement camps. They have a dedicated Syrian program (including neighboring countries, and in the past five years, they’ve delivered an impressive $5 million in humanitarian aid, helping more than 9,000 families.
UNICEF, one of my all-time favorite orgs, has a direct link for donations earmarked for Syria. Their site asserts that they’ve helped to mobilize the largest relief operation in history in response to the Civil War in Syria, providing drinking water, food, vaccinations, educational opportunity for children and more.
Preemptive Love Coalition calls themselves a “global community of peacemakers” and they focus on providing lifesaving pediatric heart surgeries, and providing food, education and safe shelter for displaced families. They were perhaps the first organization in Aleppo, and you can read some of their stories here.
Medical Teams International is a Christian-based non-profit which, like MSF, is providing vital health care, vaccines, mental health care, and nutritional help to refugees in crisis.
Hand in Hand for Syria one of ShelterBox’s partners, this UK-based non-profit was set up at the start of the Syrian conflict and now has more than 300 staff members on the ground there. While they do provide immediate humanitarian aid, their focus is longer term projects to rebuild infrastructure, offer skill-training, and create work opportunities.
Humanwire (above) is a truly innovative idea, like a Kickstarter for social good. It pairs you one-on-one with a carefully vetted refugee — from an orphaned infant to an entire family — so you have the ability to launch your own online campaign to help rally friends and family for support. There are even “rewards” at different contribution levels, like a live video with the family. The best part is that 100% of donations go directly to the people you are supporting; their own fees are underwritten through dedicated contributions.
The Center for Victims of Torture/Jordan has a program exclusively to help the more than 600,000 Syrians registered with the UN refugee agency in Jordan. So many have suffered trauma as victims of torture and abuse, the CVT helps them work toward healing, rehabilitation, and once again living productive lives of dignity.
Questscope is committed to help the youngest victims of the Syrian conflict, so if you’re looking to help children specifically, they’re a great option to check out. They create alternative learning programs, vocational training for older teens, and essential mentoring between a caring adult and at-risk child.
For even more amazing orgs — and wow, there are tons — please see the fantastic suggestions from our readers below in comments. Just be sure to click around the sites and get solid info about any you might not have heard of so you can feel confident that your donation is in good hands.
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And if you’re looking for a solid, straightforward explanation of the Syrian refugee crisis, either for you or your kids, Eeman recommends this terrific Brainpop-style video: The European Refugee Crisis and Syria Explained from a terrific educational channel called Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell:
It’s very straightforward in a nice conversational way and it pulls no punches about some of the more difficult facts, however the cartoon illustrations soften the blow for younger kids.
Just know it’s “a little outdated but still good,” as Eeman put it.
Much gratitude to her for taking the time to list so many of these resources which are new to us, and certainly to many of you.
Be to check out her entire Twitter thread and follow Eeman, Laila Alawa, and the organizations listed here for other ways to help besides money — including writing your elected representatives, volunteerism, advocacy, and social amplification.
Even just opening our hearts and practicing compassion makes a difference right now.
Please add Questscope to this list! http://www.Questscope.org
Thank you for compiling this wonderful list! I would also recommend the international organization, The Center for Victims of Torture, which extends rehabilitative care to survivors of torture and war trauma. CVT staff members in Jordan have seen 1,829 Syrian refugee clients since 2011. Learn more at cvt.org/Jordan.
Thank you both for your suggestions!
LIZ…PLEASE ADD DOCTORS OF THE WORLD. THEY HAVE BEEN HELPING REFUGEES ALL OVER EUROPE AND ARE AMAZING! Medecins du Monde.
Please add World Vision to the list!
Great list! If only had that much money to donate for all of them
Shelterbox is also a great organization helping provide shelter for the refugees. https://shelterboxusa.org/about.php?page=108
Please include Humanwire (Humanwire.org) – they are doing amazing things and allowing people to supporting Syrian refugees one-on-one.
Parcel of Love is another great organization–it helps to send boxes of essentials to families in refugee camps, like formula or clothing or items for bathing. And with a variety of price-points, it can fit a variety of budgets. https://hchearts.org/campaigns/Parcel-of-love/
Please add https://nurtureprojectinternational.org/ to the list.
Thank you for this great article! Do you have any thoughts or insight regarding “Syrian Orphans Organization”? Their first video notes that they are a coalition of Karam, Zakat Foundation and Sunrise, and they do seem to be doing a whole lot of on the ground work.
Their specific focus on orphaned children is exactly the kind of aid I’d like to start a fundraiser for, but I can’t find out a whole lot of details about how their organization is run.
I don’t know whether it’s just me or if perhaps
everyone else experiencing issues with your website.
It looks like some of the written text in your posts are running off the screen. Can someone
else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them too?
This might be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this happen before.
Many thanks
On the ground: International Orthodox Christian Charities. https://www.iocc.org/where-we-work/syria
please add https://savethesyrianchildren.org to the list.
Can you provide more info Ann? The site looks wonderful but there’s no information about who is behind the organization or whether it’s an established non-profit. I’d need more details before I could recommend it, personally.
I wanted to follow up with a note specifically from UNICEF, whom I contacted for more details. Because their effort is not solely donations, and probably because of the vast network they already have within the country and neighboring nations, they seem to be having really important, tangible impact right now:
UNICEF has been on the ground since the conflict began in Syria, helping to mobilize the largest humanitarian operation in history and working closely with partners to provide education, water, health care, immunizations, physical protection, psychological support and clothing to children in Syria and Syrian refugee children in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Europe.
With respect to the chemical attacks, UNICEF and partners continue to respond by supporting three mobile clinics and four hospitals to provide first aid and treatment, and nine ambulances to refer and transport patients to hospitals in the area.
UNICEF is also delivering critical medical supplies and working with health partners to raise awareness about medical response to chemical attacks.
From the personal experiences of people I know who have helped war torn areas and natural disasters in certain countries, the donations, whether money, food, clothing etc rarely reach the intended victims. The corrupt governments or local groups either take the goods themselves, sell it on the black market or demand bribes to let it pass thru. How do we counteract those actions?
It’s a great point Maria and yes, that does happen in some countries, particularly with the larger international NGOs that may not have their own people on the ground or work directly through the local government officials or are barred from entering.
This list contains what we think are all excellent organizations doing a variety of different things with tangible impact — some are directly on the ground and have people based locally (like the White Hats, or NuDay Syria) and are documenting their successes; some are doing work with refugees in Europe and neighboring countries, like Causewire and Shelterbox. Even MSF will work on the borders if they can’t get into the towns specifically.
If you look carefully at the descriptions, you can get a very good sense of who’s doing what, and which organizations you feel most comfortable supporting.
But we’ll get some more info from some of the bigger orgs. You need to feel comfortable with who you’re supporting, no matter what.
Hi,
In fact, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development, a highly rated, 4-star Charity Navigator humanitarian relief organization has been working inside Syria since 2013 providing food, healthcare and winter heat to the most vulnerable children and their families..
They only employee their own field staff; they do not use implementing partners and are 100% transparent.
They just opened a primary healthcare clinic 21 miles from the most recent gas attack and their brave medical and field support staff deserve our support as well!
Mercyusa.org
Liz, as I read this excellent article, there was an article at the very end about Middle Schoolers and Social Media. It so resonated with me, and I wanted to share it, but now I can’t find it. Can you help me locate it? Thanks! Sincerely, Sarah Rush
Lifting Hands International. Started by one woman passionate enough to devote her life to this. She goes to Greece and works directly in the camps there.
Liz, can we connect on my work email. As I want to support you both on the work front and personally.
Add gift of the givers
Africa’s largest aid org has built and operates a fully fledged hospital in Syria amongst its other operations.
Very established and renowned org.
I’m working with Hearts and Homes for Refugees. Hearts and Homes for Refugees has found homes for eight families in Westchester County since January. Partnering with groups like Greater NYC Families for Syria along with the Westchester Refugee Task Force, we hope to continue helping refugees, one family at a time.
Hi, please add One Refugee Child to your list. Five moms and I started it in November 2015 and we’ve raised $150,000 so far with most already spent. We are totally volunteer and 501 c3 in the US. We raise funds and spend it locally to help displaced kids and the local economy. Check us out http://www.onerefugeechild.org bottom line is we can’t tuck our kids in at night and not think of these kids in crisis and we have to do something to help these kids have childhoods.
Liz, thank you for the excellent article. Please add http://www.sktwelfare.org
Project Hope4Kids is another one to look at. They are small but have been working to set up informal schools in refugee camps to bring the children math, english and the arts. The founder is my neighbor. She’s a mom with young sons who had to do something to help children across the globe.
Please include Partners Relief & Development, working in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. http://www.partners.ngo
Please check out the David Nott Foundation!
Mr Nott is a British surgeon who has been doing amazing work in Syria, treating patients and educating medical staff in Aleppos undetground hospitals. He set up a Foundation to train medical staff in war surgery – mostly, the more advanced personnel leaves or is killed with only junior assistants being left; add to that the contant bombardment of medical facilities and you see a huge need for training.
Mr Nott is a hero and his work deserves support!! (You can even find the Foundation on Facebook )
Amaliah is a US-based organization that does the coordinating to bring wounded Syrians into the north of Israel for medical treatment. The patients usually return to Syria with donated clothes and other necessities.
https://www.unhcr.org/uk/syria-emergency.html
The Outreach Foundation (www.theoutreachfoundation.org) has, and continues, to send aid to Syria, and many other places around the globe, working with partners on the ground to make a difference.
Hello – I love the intention of this article, but question the trustworthiness of the recommendations. I thoroughly research EVERY charity that I support, and always go to the BBB, Charity Navigator, and other charity rating services to see how they rate/rank and learn all I can about them from third party watchdog group. I know a few of them that you recommend do not necessarily score well! Just because an organization is “big” or well-known (think UNICEF) does NOT mean they put your money where their mouth is! Disappointing collection of charities that a Google search could have yielded. I would hope an author would self-vet before pushing them on readers.
Hi Sara, thanks for your note. As the author, I can assure you that I did vet all of these organizations, attributing the sources from which many of them were recommended.
Many of these organizations would not come from a Google search because they are independently crowdfunded, smaller grassroots efforts without marketing teams or SEO optimization to appear in search results.
As for UNICEF specifically, if you look above at the other comments, you’ll see I reached out to several people there specifically for a tangible list of what they’ve been doing and how effective it has been and posted the response here. I feel satisfied with their response. Here is their Charity Navigator assessment for the sake of transparency: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4617# : Their accountability and transparency is extraordinary, their impact is tangible, and if you look at the comments, you’ll see a lot of strong opinions defending their work, and questioning one of CN’s oddly low ratings: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.comments&orgid=4617
(I have no relationship with them by the way! I have just admired and supported their work since my own childhood, and I’ve seen how incredibly Caryl M Stern has increased their global fundraising and impact.)
That said, while not every one of these efforts will speak to you, we’ve included a broad enough range (secular and faith-based, independent and global, work done in Syria and work done at the borders or in nearby countries, etc.) that my only hope is that there is something here that speaks to you and compels you — or anyone at all — to act. No “pushing on readers” — just myriad options, as I said in the article.
Some people feel more comfortable donating to recognizable and long-standing names, even if they have higher expenses; some feel comfortable with grassroots efforts from individuals on the ground. We make no judgment as to where your money should go.
I greatly appreciate your commitment to uncovering reputable organizations, because I feel the exact same way. And I thank you for reaching out. -Liz
Please add Partners Relief & Development to your list (www.partners.ngo) . They have had relief teams to Aleppo including Oddny Gumaer from Norway who shared about her experiences here: https://blog.partners.ngo/post/154657403391/remembering-aleppo
Another great organization to add is International Medical Corps, a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. International Medical Corps began operating in Syria in 2007, and continues to provide comprehensive response programs in five countries—Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. A goal of all our programs is to leave behind a more functional, resilient health system once the conflict ends and stability returns. For more visit: internationalmedicalcorps.org
Thanks for reading!