I'd like to focus now on the needs of and the impact in particular on the most vulnerable. In our work, we see the direct impact this is having on families and children.
Like Salma's, many families have lost family members and have fled with very few possessions, sometimes leaving even their identity papers behind. Though there are formal camps, most displaced families, such as Salma's, live among local communities in villages, towns, and cities. Some—often multiple families together—rent houses and apartments in bad shape at very high rent, while many live in informal settlements of improvised structures in schools or abandoned buildings. Many lack protection from the elements—heat in the summer and cold, snow, and wetness in the winter—with little or no access to clean water and sanitation facilities. As a result, many children get sick from water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, and exposure to the cold has had deadly consequences for babies and small children.
Like Salma and Edo, families struggle to provide such essentials as food, clothing, and fuel to cook and stay warm. Lack of food leads to increased malnutrition, and like Edo, many children in Syria and Iraq have to work to help provide for their families. This need forces them out of education and into situations in which they are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Children's education is also disrupted, as schools have become unusable, and they have difficulty transferring school documentation. When they do get into school, language differences and their absence from school for months or years often make it difficult for them to follow classes.
Medical services are hard to access. Many cannot afford them. Health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and medical personnel have been forced to flee, making health care simply unavailable for many. Parents of new babies face difficulties registering their births. These unaccounted children risk not being able to access services such as education and health care for the rest of their lives.
Finally, the cycle of social consequences has a devastating impact on children. There are credible reports of wide-scale grave violations of their rights by all parties to the conflict, including the killing and maiming of children, child recruitment by armed groups, sexual violence against girls and boys, and obstruction of their right to education. This leaves children such as Salma and her siblings in urgent need of normalized routines and safe places to learn and play.
We've been actively working to reduce the burden on the families and children of Syria and Iraq. So far World Vision has raised almost $185 million, including grants from the Canadian government, to reach 1.7 million beneficiaries, with projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, where Martin just was. Our programming targets the greatest need in each context. We select beneficiaries based on vulnerability criteria and in coordination with UN agencies and other NGOs to ensure greatest reach.
Our projects include food assistance through the provision of food vouchers or cash; essential non-food item support, for items such as soap and fuel and such winterization items as blankets or stoves; water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions; education activities, including remedial and life skill classes; child-friendly spaces, where children can find safe places to play and receive the psychosocial support they so badly need; and health programming, providing primary medical care and referral services to displaced populations.
The Government of Canada has consistently been a generous contributor to the humanitarian response for Syria and Iraq, for which we are grateful, and DFATD has been a responsive donor, allowing the flexibility that the fluid situation in this crisis requires.