Thank you, Chair, and good morning.
My name is Martin Fischer. I am the director of policy for World Vision Canada. I'll be sharing my time with my colleague Bart.
We want to thank all the committee members for inviting us to participate in this important study on the situation in Iraq and Syria.
World Vision responds to humanitarian emergencies by providing life-saving assistance such as food, health care, clean water and sanitation, and safe places for children. We are guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence, and deliver assistance to people regardless of their religion, ethnicity, race, and gender.
We are actively responding to the humanitarian situation in Iraq and Syria. In fact, I just came back from the Kurdistan region of Iraq yesterday where, together with our president Dave Toycen, I visited our projects and spoke with children and families, our project staff, as well as officials from DFATD and our humanitarian partners such as WFP.
Today, my colleague Bart Witteveen, our director for humanitarian and emergency affairs, and I would like to discuss with you the humanitarian situation in the region, which is particularly part of your study concerned with the dislocation of people, as well as World Vision's response. As we do so, we ask you to consider three recommendations. First, in the immediate term, use the upcoming pledging conference in Kuwait to champion the children of families of Syria and Iraq. Second, clearly distinguish between Canada's humanitarian response and its military and diplomatic engagements in the region. Third, use every opportunity to emphasize the importance of peace for the children of Syria and Iraq.
Last week in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, I spoke to children who yearn to be children. In the midst of chaos, they want to be able to play and learn, and they tell stories of anguish that no children should ever experience. Their stories of fleeing and living far away from home are heartbreaking.
Imagine Salma, for example, a 15-year-old girl who had to flee with her family after gunmen killed her father. Salma's mother is so distressed by the traumatic events that she's not spoken in more than three months. Today Salma, at 15, is the primary caregiver for her five younger siblings, the youngest of which is only two years old. Her younger brother Edo is 10. Back home he went to school and studied hard with dreams of being a doctor. While he still holds that dream, he's no longer in school and forced to work to provide food and other necessities for his family. Sometimes he makes enough only for sunflower seeds or chips. On a good day they can buy some vegetables. Medical care is expensive, and when one of Salma's siblings gets sick—as young children so often do—the family has to borrow money to pay for a doctor and medication. Her brother Edo's days are now filled with worries about earning enough money for food, perhaps a new tarp or propane gas—anything to help—while Salma now shoulders the responsibilities for her entire family. These worries about surviving are something no child should have to deal with. Salma and Edo appear far older than their years; war forces children to grow up quickly.
Yet Salma's and Edo's story is all too common. Millions of children in Syria and Iraq face similar challenges. The violent advances of armed groups, including ISIL, in both Syria and Iraq have affected the population of those countries at an unprecedented scale, including not only ethnic and religious minorities but also millions of Muslims. While a lot of the attention has been on Iraq lately, let us not forget the dire situation in Syria, where an estimated 5.6 million children—that is roughly as many as the total population of the greater Toronto area—are in need of life-saving assistance. As you have heard from witnesses in this study before, this truly is a humanitarian crisis at an unprecedented scale, one not seen since World War II.