Syrians try to ease humanitarian crisis Syrians at home and abroad are pouring millions of dollars of money and other aid into their country, in an effort to ease a growing humanitarian crisis that is placing increasing strain on relief agencies, opposition groups and neighbouring states. Donors ranging from businessmen in Dubai to covert ad hoc aid agencies in besieged Damascus are trying to quell the cold, hunger and homelessness facing increasing numbers of their compatriots as the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad approaches its third year. As the slow but sure rebel advance into government territory spreads a war that has already claimed more than 40,000 lives, some Syrians say suffering - and the displacement of as many as 2.5m people - is a price of the hands-off international approach to the conflict. Gamal, an activist in the opposition-controlled Damascus suburb of Douma, said conditions had grown desperate since distributions of rice and flour from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent stopped two months ago. "The people are burning their furniture for heating, bread lines stretch to tens of metres, we have no electricity," he said. The regime is mainly responsible for this dire situation - but the opposition abroad and the international community are as well. Valerie Amos, the top UN humanitarian official, on Monday urged the Syrian regime to allow fuel and more aid agencies in the country to help deal with a crisis that is worsening by the day. Aid agencies and others say hunger is reaching horrifying proportions, as the armed rebellion spawned by the 21-month old uprising against the Assad dictatorship presses deeper into regime held-areas and the resulting conflict cuts ever more supply lines. The UN World Food Programme warned this month that the deteriorating security situation meant aid groups were unable to reach 1m people at risk of starvation. The Syrian Business Council for Relief and Development, a Dubai-based group of pro-opposition business people, said it had this week distributed the first batch of a 2,000 tonne consignment of wheat sent to northern Syria via the Turkish border at a cost of $1m. Rahif Hakemi, the group's chairman, said much of a total of $6m donated by its members would be spent on relieving acute bread shortages in long-time battlezones, such as Aleppo, Syria's largest city, where government forces have - according to rights groups - targeted food supplies in opposition-held areas. "There is going to be starvation in Syria because of the lack of flour," Mr Hakemi said. The regime is systematically attacking the bakeries and food stores - it's part of the punishment. Cold is also a deadly threat to a many Syrians. The head of the country's state-owned oil distribution company has said supplies of heating oil or mazout are down 40 per cent - a shortfall he blamed on sanctions and rebel attacks on pipelines. Across the border in Jordan, host to some of the almost 500,000 Syrian refugees now in neighbouring states, a UN official said the organisation risked not being able to keep arrivals in the Zaatari facility warm because it was short of cash. "We have to be prepared for 100,000 coming in the not-too-distant future," said Andrew Harper, Jordan representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We don't have the money to procure the necessary heaters, prefabs and winterised tents. In the face of this overwhelming need, some Syrians have given up on international relief efforts - such as the diaspora member who is sending about $550 a month from the United Arab Emirates to help her family in a community near the southern city of Dera'a, where the uprising began. Another young professional has raised $5,000 mainly through cooking a typical Syrian meal for 40 friends and acquaintances in Europe - money she plans to split between nuns organising relief efforts and six families who have taken refuge in her grandparents" house. "At least I will make sure this money will not go to buy arms," she said. "I know it is a small thing - and Syria needs more of big organisations" help - but this is what I can do." Inside Syria, underground groups have sprung up to give aid separately from official regime-approved efforts, the secrecy a reflection that offering help even to civilians in opposition areas can be viewed by the regime as a political act. Another young Syrian said a friend of hers from the Damascus suburbs was arrested by the regime three months ago after he delivered food, clothes and medicines - and collected toys for displaced children so that they could celebrate the end of the Muslim Ramadan fast in August "like other kids." "There are hundreds of these activists who lie now in Syrian prisons - simply because they were caught transferring aid to displaced families," she said.