After nearly five years of civil war, more than 4.4 million Syrians have fled their homes to seek sa...

After nearly five years of civil war, more than 4.4 million Syrians have fled their homes to seek safety and security in neighbouring countries.

Already struggling for the necessities of life, from food and water to shelter and clothing, winter brings its own ordeals. Snow storms have hit the Middle East, leaving refugees facing the prospect of battling for survival in freezing temperatures with few resources.

Makeshift tents have collapsed under the weight of the snow. In southern Lebanon, a six-year-old Syrian boy among a group walking over the mountains into Lebanon died crossing the border during a blizzard.

The refugee population in Lebanon is now over 1 million and represents a quarter of Lebanon’s pre-Syrian war population. The influx has so greatly strained the country’s infrastructure that it is now curtailing the arrival of more refugees by requiring entry visas.

In Akkar, Lebanon’s poorest province in the north of the country, thousands of Syrian refugees have created makeshift tent villages. These unofficial refugee camps are endless expanses of hanging plastic sheeting with few sanitation and clean water facilities or other resources.

They are called home by countless thousands who once led solid working or middle class lives with careers, homes and amenities comparable to those in the West.

Now their living conditions mean cramming into tents with other families, with few belongings and little or no money to buy food, fuel or clothing.

As part of our Syrian Refugees Winter Crisis Appeal, Islamic Help is planning to distribute vital aid to 1,500 refugee families, representing 10,000 individuals, in Akkar and the Beka Valley in Lebanon.

Each family will receive one week’s supply of bread, one week’s supply of gas for fuel and one blanket.

Your donations will go a long way towards helping us reach these families in need. For example:

• £10 provides a Syrian refugee family with a week’s supply of bread OR 2 weeks of baby milk
• £50 provides a family with one week’s supply of bread, a gas cylinder for heating, kerosene or firewood for cooking, and blankets
• £100 will give a family enough to survive for 2 weeks with the above rations.

Help make winter more bearable for Syrian refugee families. Donate now.