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Supporting families to meet their most urgent needs through multipurpose cash assistance

Across Syria, vulnerable families are facing growing challenges in meeting their basic needs, including food, education and healthcare. Years of conflict and displacement, combined with a deteriorating economic situation and limited access to basic services, are placing increasing pressure on families.

Rising costs and limited job opportunities are leaving many families struggling to afford their basic needs. These challenges affect vulnerable families across communities, including female-headed households and families with people with disabilities or health-related needs, who are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

With funding from the Syria Humanitarian Fund, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Syria is providing Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) to 1,629 extremely vulnerable families across Aleppo, Hama, Rural Damascus, and Dar’a Governorates.

The support provides vulnerable families with three instalments of 19,500 Syrian Pounds (around $160), in addition to 600 Syrian Pounds (around $4.5) to cover related transportation costs to receive the assistance.

For families facing extreme hardship, this flexible support can provide vital temporary relief. It helps ease some of the immediate pressures families face, allowing them to focus on their most urgent needs and make choices based on their priorities, even as longer-term challenges remain.

Flexible support for urgent needs

Alia, 62, is a divorced mother from Rural Damascus with two children, a disabled son, Ahmad, who requires ongoing health care and regular medication, and a daughter. Without a stable income, Alia and her children rely on assistance to meet their basic needs. Rising living costs have made it increasingly difficult for the family to make ends meet.

These challenges are further compounded by the costs of Ahmad’s care and medical treatment. To manage these expenses, Alia relies on borrowing money and support from people willing to help. For her, meeting Ahmad’s health needs comes first.

She makes sure that he has his medication before covering other essential household expenses. With support from DRC, Alia received MPCA to help her family with the flexibility of the assistance, allowing her to prioritise essential expenses.

For Alia, the assistance made a difference for both her and her children. It helped to reduce dependency on borrowing money and helped her manage essential household expenses. It also gave the family a stronger sense of stability and reduced the stress and constant worry Alia experienced about securing food, medication, and paying household bills.

Without this support, Alia says it would be much harder to meet the family’s needs and manage monthly expenses, especially as the cost of living continues to rise, and the family has no stable source of income.

“The cash assistance helped us cover our basic needs, including food and medication, as well as some housing costs and bills. It eased the financial pressure on our family,”

Alia, a 62-year-old divorced mother from Rural Damascus

Families receiving cash assistance in Rural Damascus. DRC, 2026.

Restoring some sense of independence

Eyad is a 32-year-old father of four young children. Living with partial paralysis that prevents him from working, he also has two children who require ongoing health care. With no stable source of income, the family relies mainly on support from his family members.

The family, who returned to their community in Hama governorate after years of displacement, lives in a rented, damaged house without doors or windows. Rising living costs and limited income have made it increasingly difficult for Eyad to meet his family’s basic needs, including his own medical treatment.

Through support from DRC, Eyad received cash assistance, allowing him to prioritise his most urgent needs, including medication and food. Before receiving this support, he had been forced to stop taking his medication, which affected his health, while the family had to borrow money and rely on support from others to cope with the financial pressure.

The assistance eased the pressure on the family, gave them a sense of independence, and reduced the stress of accessing health care. Without this support, Eyad says it would be extremely difficult to continue his treatment because he cannot secure a stable income, which would push him to rely more on others and could force him to stop taking his medication again.

“When I received the assistance, I was very happy because I could cover our needs without having to ask others to lend me money. I was also able to buy chicken for my children, a meal they had not eaten for a long time.”

Eyad a 32-year-old father of four young children from Hama.

The experiences of Alia and Eyad highlight how MPCA can provide families with the flexibility and dignity to respond to their most urgent needs.

Whether covering food, medication, health care, or other essential bills, the assistance and temporary relief help the family reduce financial pressure and the need to rely on negative coping strategies.

As humanitarian needs in Syria continue, sustained support remains essential to ensure families are not left without assistance when they need it most. Continued investment is also needed to help families move beyond immediate relief towards greater resilience, self-reliance and independence.

A gradual transition towards sustainable livelihoods and appropriate graduation from humanitarian assistance can help families build greater stability and, over time, reduce their reliance on external support.