With the civil war entering its ninth year, 5.6 million Syrian children are desperate to have a childhood and urgently need your help. A generation of kids can barely recall life before bombings, fear, hunger and loss. Some have never known anything but war. But you can make a real difference. You can offer hope. Here are three things you can do today to help Syrian children.

What Can You Do To Help? Quite a Lot, It Turns Out.

The war in Syria has created the world's largest displacement crisis, with almost 5.7 million registered refugees, including more than 2.5 million Syrian children now living in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Some Syrian children have resettled with their families even farther way.

"We call once again upon all parties and anyone with influence to make peace happen now and not tomorrow," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, noting that around 5 million Syrian children have been born since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011. "These children have a bleak future with the absence of a political solution to a senseless war."

"Today there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in Syria is drawing quickly to a close – it is not," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "Children in parts of the country remain in as much danger as at any other time during the eight-year conflict."

Today there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in Syria is drawing quickly to a close – it is not. Children in parts of the country remain in as much danger as at any other time during the eight-year conflict

Some 2.6 million Syrian children have fled their homes due to violence and war. Those living under military siege or in hard-to-reach areas, like Rukban, near the Jordanian border, are in desperate straits.

"The winter months have been incredibly harsh for mothers and children in Rukban. Their health is weakened from poor nutrition and the extremely difficult living conditions,” said UNICEF Representative in Syria, Fran Equiza. “With no access to adequate medical facilities and no qualified medical personnel, a simple complication during childbirth can be fatal for mothers or their babies.”

In the northeast at the Al Hol camp, deteriorating conditions threaten the more than 65,000 residents, including an estimated 240 unaccompanied or separated children. Since January, nearly 60 children have reportedly died while making the 300-kilometre trek from Baghouz to the camp.

While life in the camps inside Syria is bleak, the prospects for children living in neighboring countries is hardly much better. Many children are not able to go to school. Many parents, with their means of earning a livelihood limited, feel they have no other option than to marry their children off or send them to work.

For children in #Rukban, one of the most remote camps of #Syrian refugees, life has been incredibly difficult. Last week, a humanitarian convoy arrived here, bringing desperately needed aid.

In response, UNICEF has helped mobilize the largest humanitarian operation in history, supplying food, water, education, warm clothing and critical immunizations to millions of children and their families in Syria and neighboring countries.

But Syrian children urgently need more help. UNICEF is appealing for $319 million to help children in Syria in 2019 along with another $903 million for Syrian refugees and other affected populations living in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.