UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said 6.9 million Syrian children urgently need humanitarian assistance. She also described the agency’s work with the Syrian government and local partners to rebuild child-support systems and restore essential services. During an official field visit and interview with SANA on Sept. 30, Russell centered government capacity and institutional coordination in UNICEF’s response. Children’s needs come through plainly; institutions dominate the account of how to meet them.
Services, Delivered Through Institutions
UNICEF’s programs in Syria include school rehabilitation, routine childhood immunization campaigns and nutritional support for vulnerable families. Russell also cited technical support to reactivate the Jobar water pumping station in Damascus. That work restored access to safe drinking water for more than 1 million residents in the capital and surrounding countryside—a concrete result in an account otherwise focused heavily on systems, partnerships and capacity.
Russell said access to quality education, primary healthcare, clean water and adequate sanitation, along with formal schooling, remains fundamental to children’s well-being, development and long-term economic prospects. These are basic needs, not abstract measures of institutional success. The interview identifies the services UNICEF supports but doesn’t detail how many children have received each one, how needs differ across the country, or what obstacles families face in reaching them.
The agency’s work also includes vocational skills training and youth empowerment beyond primary education. Russell said investment in children is essential to Syria’s recovery and reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment to strengthening government capacity and institutional systems. She described the partnership with Syrian authorities as strong and expressed appreciation for continued coordination in health, education and child protection.
That’s the arrangement Russell endorses: UNICEF brings global expertise and long-standing experience, while national governments carry ultimate responsibility for young people. The interview presents the partnership as the route to better services. It gives no account of disagreements, oversight, or how children and families themselves shape decisions made in their name.
Return, Recovery and the Missing Details
Russell said every refugee or displaced person she had met expressed a strong desire to return home. She called facilitating families’ voluntary return to Syria critical and identified support for state institutions helping returnees—particularly children—to reintegrate into normal life as a key challenge. The statement describes the aspiration and the institutional task, but offers no figures for potential returns or further details about support families would receive.
The interview also offers no account of independent grassroots groups, mutual aid or community-led decision-making. It names local partners but doesn’t identify them or explain their role. Nor does it specify the funding behind UNICEF’s programs, how resources are allocated, or what measures assess whether services reach children who need them. Those omissions matter in a story about millions of children and a recovery framed through institutional capacity.
Russell said she had seen a strong sense of optimism and enormous potential across Syria. She called on international partners to work together to create an environment where children can grow and thrive, and reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment to helping secure a better future for Syria’s next generation. The call is broad; the clearest measurable result reported remains the restored water station, serving more than 1 million residents. For the other needs named—schooling, healthcare, sanitation, nutrition and reintegration—the interview describes programs and commitments, but gives few measures of what children have received so far.