There are 6.8 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance. That’s 4.25 million people internally displaced and 2 million refugees abroad. Of these totals, 3.1 million, are children.
That is a tremendous number of people who require just the basics of survival–food, shelter, and medicine. That requires money. And yet of the $4,391,452,578 humanitarian agencies say they need to provide these basics, they have so far only received $1,823,141,573. That is 42% of the required needs.
And yet, as we are having this debate about potential American military intervention in Syria — ostensibly to help Syrians — we are hearing very little about marshaling resources to provide for humanitarian assistance of Syrians affected by war.