Latest Blog Entries

As part of the $385 million in U.S. government humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria, USAID is supporting more than 110 field hospitals, medical clinics and medical points across Syria that have saved countless lives.

Hajji Rajaa is a 69-year old grandmother who lives on her own in Rif Damascus. As she was traveling to buy groceries for her family, she was hit in the knee by sniper fire.

It’s not too often you see a packed room in Washington, D.C. when a government agency releases a progress report. But that was exactly the scene on Wednesday, March 20, at an event sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for American Progress, where USAID Administrator Raj Shah unveiled the agency’s report on its signature reform initiative – USAID Forward.

The crisis in Syria passes the two-year mark in March with no end to the conflict in sight. Meanwhile the number of people in need grows as over 1 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries while about 2 million people are displaced within Syria. And as fighting persists, the death toll continues to rise, topping 70,000 killed in early March.

As a result of the current conflicts in Syria and Mali, nearly 1 million children have difficult or no access to education. Thousands of schools have been damaged, destroyed or used for noneducational purposes. When these conflicts end, schools will lie in ruins, many teachers will have disappeared, and hundreds of thousands of children will have missed critical years of schooling. In many cases, this educational deficit will haunt them for the rest of their lives.