How do you choose the beneficiary families? How can you ensure that these are the neediest families?
The identification of the beneficiaries and the distribution of relief goods are organised in close cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC). All IDPs coming to Damascus have to be registered by SARC. It’s on the basis of these registration lists established by SARC that IBC staff is doing home visits and going from house to house in order to identify the neediest families. We concentrate these home visits on two of the poorest outskirt areas of the capital where up to four families or even more have to live together in one apartment. About 350 families have already been visited and checked up to now. These are mainly families where women have to ensure the survival of the family as there husbands were killed, families with elderly and sick people, as well as families with many children. Our main criterion is to give assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable people. The distribution of the start-up and hygiene kits is also done directly in the houses by our staff in order to guarantee that they are given to the poorest families.

What is the most striking experience you have had in your work on the ground?
With regard to nearly 17 months of continuous fighting and destruction, one should never forget the enormous human suffering in nearly each family, in each individual. Last week, our team in Damascus told me about a man who had fled to Damascus after his two brothers had been killed. He had come to the capital in a hired minibus – with the seven children of his first brother, the three children of his second brother, his five own children as well as his wife and the two wives of his two brothers. Now this man has to struggle for the survival of 15 children and three women. – And this is just one story of many, many others.

Interview: Petra Ipp-Zavazal

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