By Elizabeth Willoughby on
Last month, actor and UNICEF Ambassador Ewan McGregor's public service announcement was released – it was a plea to help UNICEF support Syrian children struggling through winter in refugee camps.
“After months of violence, living in fear for their lives, traumatized families were forced to flee for safety with nothing but the clothes they were wearing,” says McGregor. “And now these children face a new crisis. Heavy winter rain has flooded thousands of tents, destroying the only place they can call home. Children are facing freezing temperatures and fierce winds with no shelter or blankets. They are bitterly cold and frightened.”
Days after the PSA release, UNICEF’s CEO David Bull announced that the UK’s Department for International Development will be providing another £50 million in support of the children in crisis in Syria. It is a welcome contribution, but more is needed.
“The population of children in particular [in refugee camps] is growing day by day,” says Bull. “Children without the clothes that they need for winter, without socks and shoes, are suffering. They are very vulnerable in these winter conditions. After having seen terrible things in their flight from Syria, they need all the help that we can give them.”
McGregor says UNICEF is in various camps working day and night. “This is not a famine or an earthquake, but it is a crisis.”
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