The Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees – recently expanded to address the needs of refugees and migrants in Europe and the wider Middle East – announced today three grants to address the welfare of refugee women and children and to ensure psychosocial support for beleaguered first responders working with refugees. The grants were given to World Jewish Relief (WJR), working in partnership with the International Blue Crescent (IBC), and to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) working in partnership with the Turkish Jewish Community and IBC as well as with two local Hungarian NGOs, Menedek and the Student Counseling Center of Szeged University. To date, the Coalition has raised more than $200,000 for its expanded efforts.

The grant to WJR, working in partnership with IBC, will ensure thousands of refugee children receive winter supplies including warm clothing, boots, and sleeping bags. One grant to JDC – working through its local Hungarian staff and in partnership with local NGOs Menedek and the Student Counseling Center at Szeged University – will create and deploy a mother-child health care unit, including a midwife, at the Debrecen Refugee Camp and provide psychosocial support to hundreds of humanitarian first responders working with refugees in Hungary. The second grant to JDC, working in partnership with the Turkish Jewish Community and IBC, will deliver critically needed school supplies to thousands of refugee children acclimating to new educational environments in Turkey and remove the cost of providing these supplies from refugee parents.

The Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees previously aided thousands of Syrian refugees through more than $500,000 in grants for humanitarian aid in Jordan and led to the founding of the MutliFaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, an interfaith movement advocating for the needs of Syrian refugee populations.