In Atmeh's Olive Tree Camp, near the Reyhanli border crossing in Turkey's Hatay Province, many of the residents left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Good basic personal hygiene and hand washing are critical to help prevent the spread of illness and disease, and providing basic hygiene supplies and education was identified as a priority… more »
It was near midnight. We were driving in the desert with no headlights, and Syria was 20 feet to my left. To the right was a mass of shapes -- it took me a minute to realize I was looking at 850 Syrians who had just crossed safely into Jordan. One man was carrying designer luggage normally seen in airplane cabins; one girl had no shoes. I walked amongst these scared, war-numbed people, and it hit me that this was only a tiny portion of those leaving Syria.
Roughly 763,000 people have fled Syria -- 240,000 to Jordan -- and an estimated 2.5 million are displaced internally. Before that night, those numbers seemed horrific, but had little real meaning to me. They are round statistics, indicators of an escalating war. But after hearing a woman recall her husband's death and a family describe their village being leveled by barrels of explosives, I better understood the scale… more »
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a champion of the fight to end global hunger and undernutrition, making the case for increased investments in food security and nutrition to help move people out of poverty, create stronger communities, and build a more stable world.
At the Office of Global Food Security, we are looking forward to working with our partners across the whole of the U.S. government, international community, private sector, civil society, and partner nations to build on Secretary Clinton's legacy and to making 2013 another momentous year in the fight to end world hunger and undernutrition.
Throughout 2012, the Obama Administration continued… more »
On January 27 and 28, 2013, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg visited Syrian refugees in Jordan. They visited the Zaatari refugee camp, a refugee processing center at a Syria-Jordan border crossing, and a food voucher distribution center.
The United States is committed to helping the innocent children, women, and… more »
U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg visited a refugee camp for Syrians in Turkey. While there, they met with Turkish partners and assistance providers to discuss the needs of Syrian refugees and ongoing humanitarian assistance efforts.
The U.S. delegation commended the generosity of the Government of Turkey and the Turkish… more »
Today, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford; Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard; and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, Nancy Lindborg traveled to Ankara, Turkey to address the humanitarian situation in and around Syria. Ambassador Ford said:
"...We've had a busy couple of days. Yesterday, we were at the Syrian refugee camp of Islahiye down on the Turkish-Syrian border. We met a lot of people and heard stories of their suffering, of losing family members, houses destroyed. We talked about what we are doing, providing tents, providing food both to people in camps like the one we saw, but also inside… more »
After an early morning departure from Tanzania, we arrived in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe in a steady rain. The rain is not always favorable for travel, but it was very welcome in Malawi after a drought during the 2012 rainy season impacted the maize crop and food security, particularly in the south.
As I continued my first media tour as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome I was excited to have two reporters from Malawi join the group of seven talented reporters traveling with me, five African and two European, to witness programs on the ground and help tell the Malawian story of increasing food security in Africa.
Despite the difficult situation in the south, it is an exciting time to visit Malawi because… more »
Our "Photo of the Week" comes to us from Laurens Vermeire, a public affairs colleague accompanying a State Department and USAID delegation to Turkey and Jordan. The delegation includes U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford; Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard; and USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg.
The photograph shows the delegation's visit to the Islahiye Refugee Camp for Syrians near the Syrian-Turkish border in Turkey on January 24, 2013. During the visit, the delegation members spent several hours talking with camp residents… more »
Our journey started with an early morning flight into the Tanzanian city of Arusha, where we were greeted by the impressive sight of Mount Kilimanjaro, whose snow covered peak dominates the landscape.
I was on my first media tour as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome. Accompanying me was a group of talented reporters from five African countries -- Malawi, Uganda, Ghana, Niger, and Tanzania -- plus two Europeans from France and Italy.
I am pleased to announce that I'll be visiting the region this week with colleagues from the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. We'll visit Turkey and Jordan to see the conditions of Syrian refugees.
At the same time, we'll sit with governments, international organizations and NGOs working to help the Syrian refugees.
I also hope to have the opportunity to meet with many Syrians and hear directly from them about their circumstances.
Last week, when I was in Jordan, I was watching television and I saw a report on Al Arabiya about a Syrian father and his daughter, a young child, who died from the bitter cold -- a very tragic story that affected me deeply. I shared this story when I returned to Washington, and I think… more »
Position that women accept for themselves in a society is iunfluenced by culture and values as they have evolved. Violence against women is an acute problem…
more »
Spokesperson Nuland (Feb. 23): "These attacks ... are only the latest demonstrations of the Syrian regime's ruthlessness and its lack of compassion for the Syrian people it claims to represent." more »
Secretary Kerry (Feb. 22): "We meet as very special friends in a very strong alliance, an alliance that I can say to you is really evolving into a global partnership and which is critical to the peace and security of the Asia Pacific." President's Re more »
![Displaced Syrian women are seen in front of their tent in the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Feb. 21, 2013. [AP Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0222_syria_displaced_m.jpg)
![A Syrian refugee stands on top of a water tank at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, January 9, 2013. [AP File Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0210_syria_refugees_m.jpg)
![This photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 shows a wheat farm near Debre Zeit, in Ethiopia's Amhara region. [AP File Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0201_field_ethiopia_m.jpg)
![Women farmers welcome U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome David Lane to Tidi Village, Malawi, on January 14, 2013. [State Department photo by Sharon Ketchum/ Public Domain]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0125_women_malawi_m.jpg)
![USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg interacts with Syrian refugees at Islahiye Refugee Camp in Turkey on January 24, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0125_lindborg_turkey_syria_m.jpg)
![Villagers in Mtanga, Malawi, where U.N.-backed development projects are helping farmers grow maize and start fish farming, April 16, 2007. [AP File Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0123_malawi_village_m.jpg)
![Syrian refugees look out of a vehicle's window just after crossing the border from Syria to Turkey, in Cilvegozu, Turkey, December 20, 2012. [AP Photo]](https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130224222131im_/http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2013_0122_syria_refugees_in_turkey_m.jpg)
