World Vision report highlights plight of the women and children of Syria’s widow camps

Executive summary

Eleven years into the war in Syria, the humanitarian crisis is worse than ever. More than 13 million Syrians have been affected by the ongoing war and persecution, and 6.2 million, including 2.5 million children, are now internally displaced.

World Vision’s 2021 “Too High a Price to Pay” report estimates that the Syrian economy has been hit with more than US$1.2 trillion in cumulative financial losses from the conflict, and that the life expectancy of Syrian children has been reduced by 13 years.

This new report investigates the impacts of the Syrian war in some of the hardest-to-reach places. It focuses on the so-called “widow camps”, home to tens of thousands of widows and other single women – including women who are divorced or whose husbands are missing – and their children, living in the 28 accessible camps across northwest Syria (NW Syria).

These women and their children face chronic and high levels of violence, including neglect, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, as well as child marriage and child labour. Boys are especially at risk of recruitment into armed groups, and later radicalisation. This is because boys older than 11 are considered male adults by the community and are forced to leave the camps, with no place to go, no employment prospects and no future.

Despite the dire living conditions in the widow camps, humanitarian access remains extremely challenging across NW Syria with only one entry point for UN humanitarian assistance still open. In fact, widows are the most at risk of being excluded from humanitarian aid and services and are especially vulnerable to gender-based violence (GBV). Yet, they and their children remain largely de-prioritised by donors and are mostly invisible in humanitarian operations in NW Syria. There have also been access restrictions for aid agencies to support women and children living in these camps, which has made the prioritisation of this group even more important.

These women and their children wake up every day under constant threat of violence with no means to earn a living and no access to basic services – the rights of girls in particular are being compromised, including denial of their right to education. Movement restrictions drastically impact their lives. In contrast to other displaced women in general internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, women in widow camps do not have the right to move freely and are unable to work to support themselves and their children. In some cases, the women in these camps choose to take their own lives when faced with overwhelming levels of deprivation, stress and desperation.

World Vision report highlights plight of the women and children of Syria’s widow camps
Source: Philippines Legacy PH