Syria

Emergency response

Following the collapse of the Assad regime, Syria saw over 600,000 refugees return from neighbouring countries in the early months of 2025, facing destroyed homes, devastated infrastructure, and lacking essential services after 14 years of conflict, and continued effects from the February 2023 earthquake. Across the country, almost one-third of housing units are either destroyed or severely damaged, while half the population lacks access to safe water and sanitation services. 

Against this backdrop, GOAL has worked to expand emergency support to food security, WASH, shelter, and the overall crisis response. In total, GOAL’s Syria programme has reached over 1.1 million people, delivering urgent aid to communities still reeling from the compounded impacts of conflict, displacement, and years of instability.  

Building on the immediate humanitarian response following the 2023 earthquakes, GOAL continued to prioritise the needs of those living without adequate shelter. Throughout 2024, the organisation expanded its Dignified Shelter Programme, which replaces worn-out tents with safer, durable, and more private shelter units. These upgraded shelters include lighting, sanitation and clean water systems, offering protection from the elements and reducing health and protection risks, particularly for women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In 2025, following the fall of regime, GOAL refocused these ongoing operations to meet the evolving needs of approximately 1.23 million IDPs / returnees. 

Rehabilitating essential WASH infrastructures

In 2024, GOAL provided over 1.6 million people in Syria — more than half of them women — with access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services. 

Building on over a decade of WASH programming efforts, in 2025 GOAL continued to operate and maintain more than 60 water stations across Idleb and Northern Aleppo governorates. These systems are vital in a context where conflict, displacement, and infrastructure collapse have left communities with limited or no access to safe water. 

GOAL’s WASH teams restored access to safe water by rehabilitating and operating water stations and piped networks in Northern Aleppo and Idleb, including upgrading existing wells with solar power and emergency logistics to keep water flowing to displacement camps and conflict-affected towns. These sustainable systems reached over 800,000 people with clean water, while sanitation services supported another 177,000. Notably, 99.98% of water samples met SPHERE standards – a set of principles and minimum humanitarian standards for water. 

Food & Nutrition Security and Curative Nutrition

In 2024, GOAL supported over 1.3 million people with food and nutrition assistance — including more than 120,000 children and women who received life-saving curative and preventative nutrition services. 

In areas still reeling from the 2023 earthquakes, GOAL expanded emergency food support through additional bakeries, free bread distribution, and ready-to-eat kits for displaced families. 

GOAL’s food security work remains vital in a context of economic collapse, soaring prices, and repeated displacement — helping families meet food needs with dignity. Reaching over 660,000 people through interventions that include flour distribution, bakery support, cash or voucher assistance, and Ready-to-Eat (RTE) kits. These efforts aim to stabilise household food consumption, support local markets, and ensure access to affordable bread and essential food items for the most vulnerable. 

Building on these achievements, GOAL continues to adapt its food security approach to meet evolving needs. Following the fall of the Assad regime, the organisation is navigating a volatile environment marked by governance shifts, disrupted supply chains, and market instability, prioritising sustainability, local partnerships, and community resilience to keep food systems functional and responsive. 

GOAL also provides a comprehensive package of nutrition services that address the immediate and underlying needs of women and children. Treatment is delivered through the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition by Rapid Response Teams, ensuring all children and women enrolled into the program are followed through to recovery.  

Prevention services are provided in multiple ways, mainly by distributing supplements which include multi-micronutrient supplies and fortified foods to address chronic and acute forms of malnutrition. Another core component is an integrated social behaviour change communication framework on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Feeding that is delivered to the target individuals and their influencing surrounding community building on the socio-ecological module to create meaningful and lasting change in communities’ behaviours around nutrition.   

With food insecurity being one the main drivers of malnutrition in Syria, GOAL has been providing CVA for households with nutritionally vulnerable individuals, including children under the age of two and lactating mothers, in addition to the household’s main food assistance, to improve their access to nutritious food and prevent them from developing malnutrition.