QRC aid for Eastern Ghouta. Right: QRC volunteers distributing aid.

Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has initiated an urgent humanitarian intervention to provide relief in the city of Douma, Syria, which has lately been bombarded along with other parts of Eastern Ghouta.
The clashes have claimed 135 lives and injured 400, mostly children, women and the elderly.
Strategically located about 9km north-east of Damascus, Douma is the centre of Rif Dimashq governorate and the administrative centre of Damascus Ghouta, home to 2,196,000 people who face difficulties in securing their basic needs due to lack of money and scarcity of food and medical and relief supplies.
As the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta worsened, the International Humanitarian Relief called upon Arab and world organisations to help the population of Douma.
It warned that the severe deterioration of security, medical and humanitarian conditions would make Douma “unlivable”. The three-year siege has depleted the district’s resources and population.
Amid a serious lack of medical, ambulance and surgical requirements, the number of injuries is much higher than the capacity of the town’s hospitals and health centres.
As the first to respond to this call, QRC staff in Syria took prompt action, utilising the organisation’s legal capacity as a recognised humanitarian agency whose vehicles, facilities and staff are protected under international laws and conventions.
Based on close monitoring of the situation, an urgent plan was developed to continue supporting the distressed in Syria, by providing $30,000 (QR109,143) worth of ICU and recovery medical supplies for the hospitals receiving the injured.
The process was co-ordinated with local partners to buy first-aid medicines and oral/venous antibiotics ($12,500), fuel ($5,500), anaesthetics ($2,500), an ambulance ($4,000) and 500 blood containers ($4,000) as well as meeting logistics expenses ($1,500).
This is not QRC’s first project in Eastern Ghouta. Earlier this year, winter and food assistance worth $548,095 (QR1,994,960) was provided to 57,250 people in several districts. These included 25,600 blankets, 384 tonnes of heating wood and 5,000 6kg food packages.
Last Ramadan, QRC distributed daily Ramadan Iftar meals to 22,145 Syrian families in Eastern Ghouta.