22 Jun 2012

GENEVA / SYRIA HUMANITARIAN UPDATE

UN agencies said today that around 1.5 million people in Syria are in need of basic assistance like food, shelter and health items. While some aid is getting through, relief efforts are still severely hampered by the security situation. CH UNTV

Posted at: June 22, 2012 11:08 am

Duration: 02:45

Available in: SD

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STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA HUMANITARIAN UPDATE 
TRT: 2:45
SOURCE: CH UNTV 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22 JUNE 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Palais des Nations

22 JUNE 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, journalists at press briefing 
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesman, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):  
"The bulletin highlights that more and more people are leaving their homes and vulnerability is growing and assistance is needed.   For example, in Idlib where the fighting continues, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent reports that 350,000 people now need assistance, this is an increase of 150,000 people since March.  They also report that 250,000 people require humanitarian assistance in Homs, that's also a slight increase. Now two thirds of those in Homs are currently receiving such assistance."
4. Cutaway, journalist at table  
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesman, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
"Up to 1.5 million people now need humanitarian assistance in Syria."
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesman, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): 
"The reconnaissance missions that we have talked about have now been completed for UN field presences and humanitarian hubs.  Such hubs may initially now be established in Homs and Deir-es-Zor but staff deployment is currently severely hindered by the security situation."
8. Cutaway, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesman, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
"(ref the Humanitarian Plan) It is there, it stands. It's other conditions which are not specified in the Syria response plan that determines whether it can be implemented or not.  But the plan is still there."
10. Cutaway, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:  
"Since January, UNICEF and its partners in the country has reached 115,000 people including more than 80,000 children with assistance ranging from non-food items, psycho-social support, education, etc and this doesn't include UNICEF support to the Ministry of Health for the vaccination of over 248,000 children."
12. Cutaway, journalist
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:  
"Access is an issue but our intent, once we have access, is to do a lot of work to rehabilitate schools, to provide a lot of psychosocial support to children, to make sure their emergency health needs are met and to provide basic items by displaced and other vulnerable families."
14. Wide shot, journalists in room

STORYLINE:

Around 1.5 million people in Syria are in need of basic assistance like food, shelter and health items. While some aid is getting through, relief efforts are still severely hampered by the security situation.

Despite a humanitarian response plan having been agreed with the Syrian government on 5 June, the spokesman for the UN office coordinating relief efforts said today (22 June) in Geneva that plan cannot be fully implemented while deployment of UN staff is so severly hindered by the violence on the ground.

Asked by a journalist if the plan had collapsed, Jens Laerke said it had not, but its implementation depends on the teams getting safe access to those in need.

UNICEF also said that limited aid is getting through but that access is the main issue.

A bulletin on Syrian relief published by OCHA today, stated that, with the increasing numbers of people fleeing the fighting, the humanitarian situation was deteriorating.

Also, funding for the relief efforts is also going down. UN agencies and their partners are seeking US$264 million to respond to the humanitarian needs inside Syria and in neighbouring countries.  As of 18 June, the humanitarian response inside Syria is 22.5 per cent funded, and for the region, is 36 per cent funded.