by Stephanie Parker
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Syria and its neighboring countries need 6 billion U.S. dollars for immediate humanitarian assistance, Valerie Amos, the UN relief chief, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.
The Syrian crisis has hit the three-and-a-half-year mark, but the call for action is even more urgent, said Amos, the UN under- secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
"We've got a lot more people inside of Syria that are effected by the conflict," said Amos, the former British high commissioner to Australia and eighth under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
On Tuesday, the UN agency raised 1 billion of the 6 billion U.S. dollars in a high-level humanitarian meeting held at the UN headquarters a day before the Wednesday opening of the annual high- level debate of the UN General Assembly.
The countries pledged the additional support to help with immediate aid and long-term development projects within Syria and the surrounding countries of Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
Amos acknowledged the global support the agency received Tuesday, saying that "people and their governments continue to be generous and give support to humanitarian action."
Even though "we are seeing (...) a gap between what is being given and the way the needs are growing," she said.
The needs are outstripping what are made available, she said while providing an example relevant to Syria.
"We've seen a mass movement of people into neighboring countries including Turkey over the last couple of days," she said.
To be exact, she said, "we've seen 130,000 people (leave) Syria and moved into Turkey."
In the northern villages of Syria, intense battles are raging between the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and the Kurdish militia, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday.
The clashes have been incessant and the IS terrorists have started using tanks and heavy artillery in their push toward the city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani.
Right now, the IS militants have seized control of 64 villages in the vicinity of the predominately Kurdish city of Kobani.
The heavy IS terrorist presence has pushed Syrian Kurds into Turkey. Thus, the failing state is putting pressure on the surrounding areas.
Amos said, "The impact on Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and (Turkey) is substantial."
So, "we need the international community to act and advocate for a political solution, in addition to financial support."
As of now, she said, "we know that chronic and long-term conflicts have a devastating impact on societies, economies, social infrastructures and crucially on the people themselves."
For instance, "women, children and ordinary people are brutalized by this conflict and that is something in which (...) the world needs to wake up too," she said.
To help the "brutalized" children of Syria, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and governments set up the lost generation initiative in October 2013.
So far, the program has increased enrollment in formal and non- formal education within the neighboring countries. It has also provided psychosocial support to an additional 770,000 children over last year, according to information given by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
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