Syria: Crisis Appeal Struggling To Raise Funds

A campaign by the Disasters Emergency Committee to help the people of Syria has raised millions of pounds less than previous appeals to help victims of natural disasters.

So far £19m has been donated by the British public for Syria, compared to £392m raised after the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand and Indonesia in 2004.

The DEC says it is common for appeals linked to conflict and war to attract lower donation figures.

Aid agencies are now insistent that Syria's humanitarian crisis should not be ignored as the diplomatic wrangling continues, arguing that the numbers of refugees are overwhelming.

Abed Alqader Qabtour, director of relief operations for the Aleppo region, spoke to Sky News from the Bab Salamah camp on the Turkey/Syria border.

He said: "We have here 400 refugees, more and more are coming as there is more shelling and killing inside.

"But we only have help from Turkish NGO's (non-governmental organisations), not the UN or other Arabic nations, and we are in a tough situation."

So how does the £19m raised for the Syria Crisis Appeal compare to previous appeals?

It is more than the DEC raised for their last conflict appeal, set up for Gaza in 2009 when they raised £8.3m, but is dwarfed by those for natural disasters.

And appeals for the victims of genocide or killing that the public see as entirely one sided have also received larger sums - some £53m was donated to the Kosovo appeal in 1999.

Leigh Daynes from charity Doctors Of The World believes public perception plays a large part.

He said: "There's a sense that somehow conflict victims are not perceived as deserving victims and somehow it's self-inflicted, it's political, it's military, it's not worthy of our support.

"That of course is not the reality on the ground where people are suffering terribly."

Mohammed Ali, from Barking, was one of those who was moved to do something - however small.

From a warehouse in east London, he's already sent 30 tons of supplies to Jordan including food and toiletries. His next shipment will be on its way later this week.

He told Sky News: "I said to myself I'm going to do something about it, we hear news and we see news of this disaster, but how many of us actually practically do something about it?

"I thought you know what I'm not going to go to the mosque in the evenings during the rest of Ramadan, I'm going to go out there collecting food donations."

While charities say it is not their place to criticise how people decide to donate, they do want to stress that whether victims have been affected by conflict or natural disaster, they will often need the same emergency aid, including food, clean water, shelter and medical supplies.