Millions lay their hopes on Geneva

HYPOTHERMIA often happens in temperatures ranging from 0 to 10C. Children are particularly vulnerable as they lose heat more quickly than adults, mostly through their head.

Shivering, and breathing difficulties are the first signs, but all too quickly the shivering stops, the breathing slows, the pupils dilate, and the child falls into coma and dies. It happens silently and all too easily.

This winter, no one has known this better than Syrian mothers who, stripped of the basics of survival — food, blankets, fuel — repeatedly wake their children throughout the night to make sure that they will still be alive in the morning.

Combining strength, vulnerability, and resolve in equal measures these women, many of whom left comfortable, warm, homes have become expert survivors, and war warriors for their children. But with every day that passes, this strength is being tested beyond human endurance, and the cold is just the latest challenge in what has been a long and bloody three-year cycle of violence, human rights abuses, death, destruction, and trauma.

Today some 9m Syrians are in desperate need of assistance. 2.5m of these are living as refugees in neighbouring countries in overcrowded camps, make-shift accommodation, chicken farms, and half-finished garages. But these are in fact, the lucky ones. These are the refugees that the international aid agencies can reach.

Across the border it’s a different story. More than 6m people displaced and affected by the war are in desperate need of assistance yet accessing them is a daily and deadly challenge.

Last week alone, 24 people were killed in one of the towns where Concern is working. Bombings, shootings, and kidnappings happen daily . The deepest frustration is to have to sit on the sidelines, knowing, in some cases you are half an hour’s drive from providing a family with a blanket, fresh water, food, and shelter.

More than 6m people inside Syria are affected by the crisis and in need of emergency assistance. The numbers now are too big to comprehend, so we try to compare them with other crises — such as Rwanda and the first Iraq war — which have driven out more people over a similar period of time. But as the violence continues, these statistics are being surpassed. We are running out of comparisons, and out of time.

The Geneva talks offer the potential for an end to this brutal conflict. Much of the focus has been on the formation of a new political framework; a transitional authority that brings the multiple sides together. It is an ambitious agenda that is not fully supported by key regional players such as Iran but, currently, it’s the only option on the on the table.

Expectations may be low for an early political settlement but the stakes on the humanitarian side have never been higher. The talks also offer the opportunity to end hostilities and deliver — as laid out in the Geneva I meetings — an immediate, credible, and sustained end to hostilities and full, unimpeded access to humanitarian aid agencies.

This is not unrealistic and in fact we have seen it implemented already. Under pressure from Valeria Amos and the UN, government of Syria forces and non-state armed militia ‘paused’ fighting for one day enabling 10 small trucks with rice, lentils, beans, sugar, and pasta to be delivered to populations in Madamiyet, rural Damascus that had been cut off for over a year. This was on Dec 28. The pause was brief and no trucks have been able to deliver since. But it can be done.

Pressure works and the recent call by the Government for a UN Security Council resolution to ensure that humanitarian agencies can reach those who are desperately in need of assistance is timely and welcome. As 9m people turn their hopes to Geneva it is our hope that the human tragedies of Syria will be at the forefront of the discussion on of those who hold the fate of the nation in their hands.

Perhaps they can be inspired by the news this week that another crisis had reached a turning point as South Sudan’s government and rebels signed a ceasefire, ending a raging conflict that left thousands dead. For, in the end, neither hope nor help can be left dangling in the bitter winds of winter.

* Dominic MacSorley is CEO of Concern