Tuesday 15 March marks five years since the start of Syria’s brutal war. Let’s join together this week to counter despair and bring back some much-needed hope for Syria.
When it comes to Syria, the very mention of hope could seem foolishly optimistic.
Let’s put the crisis into perspective. In just half a decade, Syria’s war has sparked one of the greatest humanitarian emergencies of a generation. It’s the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. More than a quarter of a million people have been killed. An average of 50 Syrian families have fled their homes every hour of every day since 2011.
Around half of Syria’s entire population is now homeless, with 6.6 million people displaced within the country and 4.8 million living as refugees elsewhere. Even having escaped the fighting, people face impossible choices, leading many to risk their lives afresh on dangerous migration routes.