Tell the Australian Government to help the families of Syria

Six-year-old Farah fled Syria with her family after she and her brother were injured in a cluster bomb explosion. The damp single room in Lebanon they now call home has no water or electricity. Their toilet is a hole outside with sheets hung around it.

The Syrian crisis has become one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our generation. In July, the number of refugees who have fled the country will reach a staggering 3 million people. Millions of families like Farah’s are facing unimaginable suffering.

We all have a role to play and the Australian Government should contribute its fair share to help the families of Syria.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, I join the call for the Australian Government to do its fair share for Syria and give an additional $70 million in humanitarian assistance by the end of 2014.

$70 million could provide safe drinking water to over 140,000 refugees to prevent the spread of disease; or immunise over 3 million people – the exact number of children in danger inside Syria – against polio, which has resurfaced in Syria since the war broke out.