by Khetam Malkawi 29 July 2013 Jordan Times
AMMAN — One year after the official opening of the Zaatari Refugee Camp in the northern Governorate of Mafraq, relief organisations see no end in sight for the Syrian refugee crisis.
Syrian refugees gather at Zaatari camp near the Syrian border, some 100km northeast of Amman, last Friday (AP photo by Raad Adayleh)
An official at UNICEF, one of the first organisations to provide services for Syrian refugees inside and outside the camp, on Monday said relief workers expect Zaatari to mark more anniversaries.
“Zaatari today [Monday] is marking its first anniversary, and we still don’t know how long this is going to stay,” Marc Vergara, communications officer at UNICEF Jordan said.
“We are looking at one year and more,” he added.
The largest camp for Syrian refugees officially opened on July 29 last year with a collection of some 2,000 tents and the capacity to house some 10,000 persons.
It has grown to host over 120,000 refugees and become the fourth largest population centre in the Kingdom.
UNICEF provides full water, sanitation and hygiene coverage to all refugees in the Zaatari camp, King Abdullah Park and Cyber City, in addition to rehabilitating water pumps for host communities.
In a briefing he gave to The Jordan Times on services that UNICEF provides for Syrian refugees, Vergara said every day, the agency provides 4,000 litres of water to the camp, with the support of NGOs Oxfam and ACTED.
With more than half of the camp’s residents being children, constituting 54 per cent of its population, UNICEF — supported by other partners — has built three schools there.
“In Zaatari, 30,000 children are eligible to go to schools, but now, only 12,000 are registered for many reasons,” Vergara said, adding that only two schools are being used so far.
Vergara said UNICEF hopes the Back to School campaign, starting next week, will result in increased registration, and that by September 1, when schools reopen, more students will be there to attend classes.
As for education services in host communities, UNICEF pays school fees, books costs and teachers’ salaries to cover the cost for the enrolment of Syrian students at schools in host communities.
There are about 32,000 Syrian children registered at schools outside the camp, although 125,000 are eligible to go to schools, according to UNICEF figures.
To continue providing services to Syrian refugees in Jordan, the agency needs $150 million until the end of the year.
SOURCE: http://jordantimes.com/one-year-after-zaatari-opened-no-end-in-sight-to-refugee-crisis
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Jordan, Syria