Emergency Preparedness & Response
In Syria our humanitarian response includes distributing essential food items and food vouchers to those most in need. We provide emergency hygiene kits to displaced families and shelter and protection for vulnerable people to cope with the winter.
Our staff focuses on vulnerable displaced populations and also on the communities who host them.
In Iraq, we aim to support the most vulnerable communities during emergencies, reduce reliance on harmful short-term coping mechanisms and see them through the recovery phase. This means working hand in hand with displaced and host communities and building their resilience to future shocks.
Protection Mainstreaming
Ongoing ActivitiesORPast Activities

Emergency response
- In 2020, we provided a monthly average of 23,667 ready-to-eat rations (RTERs) or food kits for families in the immediate aftermath of displacement or other crises
- 18,050 hygiene kits provided to households from PIN in 2020, containing essentials such as soap, towels, dishwashing liquid, jerry cans, and buckets, thus giving people the tools to improve their own hygiene and safety.
- In 2020, 20,929 individuals benefited from emergency once-off cash grants to assist highly vulnerable people to buy food, water and other essential items

Non-food items & Shelter
Additionally, we distribute essential items to the most vulnerable families, especially those who have been recently displaced to camps or informal settlements due to the conflict. For these families, who are living under very severe conditions and with few belongings of their own, PIN provides essential items like kitchen kits providing all the basic items required for cooking, mattresses, blankets, clothes, and hygiene kits. To help survive the bitter cold winter months, we also distribute heaters and cash grants for fuel.
- 3,077 people received assistance to help prepare for the winter of 2020/2021
- 15,888 households supplied with non-food items such as mattresses, blankets, clothes, and kitchen items
- 1,069 households received assistance to ensure adequate shelter, through the provision of tents and household rehabilitation
- 531,000 individuals benefited from public infrastructure rehabilitation, such as health clinics, schools, markets

WASH - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Since 2013, People in Need has helped to restore public water wells and networks, construct water points and elevated water tanks, rehabilitate and extend sewage systems, build landfills, provide generators and renovate or install toilets and showers in camps and schools. We work with local authorities and contractors to carry out this work and improve the management of basic water, sanitation and hygiene services. Our cash-for-work programmes employ people to clear debris, renovate water networks and collect waste, thereby supporting rehabilitation efforts while at the same time offering vulnerable families a dignified way to earn an income.
- In 2020, 269,578 people benefited from improved access to water as a result of our programmes
- In 2020, 351,300 individuals benefited from improved sanitation or waste removal services creating a healthier, safer living environment for them

Food security
We also support hundreds of selected bakeries each month, providing thousands of families with access to more affordable bread.
- Each month 13,420 families receive food parcels
- Each month 8,500 families receive monthly food vouchers
- In 2020, more than 4 million subsidised bread packs were baked, reaching 315,000 individuals

COVID-19 Response

Humanitarian aid
PIN was one of the very first international organisations to start providing immediate humanitarian aid and assistance to people directly inside Mosul in February 2017 when the military campaign was still ongoing. Once the fighting subsided, we expanded our activities into other retaken areas in Nineveh, Salah Al-Din, Kirkuk and West Anbar. Depending on the situation, we help people adapt their temporary shelters, repair their war-damaged homes, or equip their households with basic items. The most vulnerable households might receive a direct financial support to cover their basic day-to-day needs, or their labour-fit members are engaged in activities such as waste collection, cleaning, and minor restoration works, to earn some income. Since 2014, 38,000 people have benefited from a one-time grant or cash-for-work program. By repairing water supply networks, we also help restore access to safe drinking water and revitalise local farming activities.

Material aid against the cold

Reconstruction of Missan province
After the war, in the southern province of Missan, PIN reconstructed more than fifty schools and sixty medical establishments, fire stations, sport halls and youth centres. The drinking water supply system had also been damaged during the war and therefore the reconstruction of water treatment plants was carried out, as well as the distribution of simple water purifying devices for households. The public sewage system was also repaired in Al Amarah city.
In cooperation with local authorities, PIN held health checks at schools carried out together with inoculations of children, lectures about hygiene, water and sanitation awareness lectures as well as illness prevention campaigns. In the area of the Iraqi marshes, PIN focused on fighting malaria through the distribution of mosquito nets.