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UNICEF seeks funds to help Syrian refugee children in Jordan

27 August 2012 22:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA.The United Nations Children ’s Fund (UNICEF) on Monday urgently appealed for additional funds to meet the health and protection needs of an increasing number of Syrian refugee children and their families, who have fled to Jordan to escape the ongoing conflict in their home country, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Some 17,000 people, half of them children, are taking shelter at the Za’atari refugee camp in north Jordan, but numbers are increasing daily with hundreds of new arrivals from Syria, UN officials said here.

The UN agency is appealing for 54 million U.S. dollars in urgent funds to cover the emergency needs of Syrian refugees in the Za’atari camp and surrounding communities, said the officials.

Also on Monday, Jordan said that it needs 429.7 million U.S. dollars for long-term hosting of the Syrian refugees.

Syria has been wracked by violence, with more than 17,000 people -- mostly civilians -- reportedly killed since the country’ s political crisis broke out in March 2011.

"We expect to have 70,000 people at Za’atari camp by the end of this year," UNICEF’s representative for Jordan, Dominique Hyde, said in a news release issued here. "We must act now because it is children who continue to suffer most. So more funding is urgently required to scale up our emergency response activities."

Conditions at the Za’atari camp are harsh, with scorching temperatures, no natural shade, and frequent sandstorms that rip through the camp, according to UNICEF. The agency is currently leading an emergency water and sanitation response program in the camp, trucking in water to provide 50 liters per person every day.

However, UNICEF is also constructing a well to provide water on a more sustainable basis due to the rapidly growing number of refugees. The installation of new toilets, showers and taps in the camp is also underway.

UNICEF noted that with as many as 2,000 people crossing the border from Syria to Jordan in a single night -- as was the case last weekend -- the risk of disease outbreaks is greater.

To address this concern, UNICEF has partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Jordanian Ministry of Health to establish a regular vaccination program to immunize children under five years of age at the camp.

The UN agency is also supporting distressed children who need special care after experiencing extreme levels of violence in Syria, by providing child-friendly spaces where they can play, learn and receive psychosocial support.

"Children fleeing violence in Syria are at risk of suffering long-term distress without appropriate care," said Hyde. "Right now, the child-friendly spaces are sufficient for 2,500 children in Za’atari. In just a few months, we expect as many as 35,000 children will be at the camp, so we urgently need to provide additional safe places and other support to protect these children who have already suffered so much." Enditem