“Above all, we dream of safety.” This is Hamza’s* hope as Syria slowly emerges from over a decade of civil war.
However, ongoing conflict, economic decline, and the aftermath of 2023’s devastating earthquake continue to threaten the country’s stability. Today, more than 7.4 million people in Syria still can’t return home.
Hamza and his family were forced to leave their home a few years after the war began in 2011. For 10 years, they had to live in a camp in another region of Syria. Although the family returned to their village in 2025, rebuilding their lives has not been easy.
“We’re doing everything we can to secure better living conditions for the family, but what we earn is not enough, and expenses keep piling up,” he says.
In response to the crisis in Syria, Foodgrains Bank member World Renew partnered with Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development/ Middle East Revive and Thrive (MERATH) to provide food assistance from 2024 until March 2026. Through this initiative, Hamza’s family received food baskets with items like rice, lentils, oil, and sugar.
“Without this support, the winter weather and malnutrition could have led to constant stomach aches, colds, and diarrhea, forcing us into costly treatments,” he says. “[This] spared us so much suffering.”
The struggle to secure enough food in Syria has been especially difficult for people who rely on agriculture to earn a living, such as Amal* and her family. The monthly food baskets allowed her family to purchase other items they could not produce or harvest.
Foodgrains Bank member World Renew Canada partnered with its local partner Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development/Middle East Revive and Thrive (MERATH) to implement a food assistance project in Syria. Amal’s* family was among 3,583 households to receive monthly food baskets. “[Without] the boxes, we were always short on food and had to skip meals,” says Amal (above, right). “Some days we had nothing to cook. Sometimes I fried onions over wood just to feed my kids and eat with them.” (Photo: MERATH)
“When we received the first food box, my brothers were so excited because it meant that for the first time in a long time, we might be able to buy and cook some meat,” she says.
While families like Amal’s and Hamza’s continue to rebuild, Hamza says he has hope for their future. “For my family, I pray that my children can grow up well and get an education, so they can build a better, dignified life for themselves.”
The Foodgrains Bank has been supporting emergency food assistance programming in Syria since 2012, through our members and their local partners.
*pseudonyms used for participant’s privacy
This story was originally published in the 2026 fall edition of Breaking Bread.
