JORDAN: On a day when Syria's opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of gassing many hundreds of people, UNICEF officials warn that the Syrian crisis has impacted over four million children

Record ID: 346822

  • Title: JORDAN: On a day when Syria's opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of gassing many hundreds of people, UNICEF officials warn that the Syrian crisis has impacted over four million children
  • Date: 21st August 2013
  • Summary: MAFRAQ, JORDAN (AUGUST 21, 2013) (REUTERS) UNICEF RUN SCHOOL IN THE ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP CLOSE OF SIGN READING (English) "UNICEF, EU, GERMANY, USA" UNICEF OFFICIALS ARRIVING AT SCHOOL UNICEF DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY PROGRAMS, TED CHAIBAN, AND UNICEF DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, PALOMA ESCUDERO, GREETING JORDANIAN OFFICIALS CHAIBAN ENTERING SCHOOL BUILDING CHAIBAN SHAKING HAN
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA9V3O7EB90JEMH6513TW9173BL
  • Story Text: UNICEF officials visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on Wednesday (August 21).
    The camp houses more than 120,000 Syrian refugees who fled the conflict back home.
    Ted Chaiban from UNICEF said the conflict had affected more than four million children.
    "The Syria crisis response is the most important crisis that the world is dealing with for children today, and continues to be so. There are over four million children that are affected in the sub-region, both inside Syria, over three million children inside Syria, over 1.2 million children who are refugees outside of Syria, in terms of projected numbers, and we see this as a children's crisis first and foremost."
    Now that the new school year is approaching, Chaiban said UNICEF would try to get more children into schools.
    "We're going into the new school year in September, where most children around the world are thinking, oh I'm going back to school, I'm going to see my friends. And yet for the Syrian child, for many Syrian children, they're worried about security, they're worried about displacement, they're worried about what's going to happen to them. We need to work together to make sure that we do a very energetic back to school campaign both here in Zaatari but also in host communities in Jordan, in Lebanon, inside Syria where UNICEF is present."
    He said there were 12,000 children currently registered with UNICEF schools in the camp, but with the help of the upcoming 'Back to School' campaign, he hopes that this number will reach 40,000.
    However, some Syrian refugees at the camp said they hesitated to send their children to school out of fears for their safety.
    "To begin with I worry about my children, and secondly the school is very far away. When I used to send them to school, the children would come back hurt, or with something broken. The problem with schools is that they are far, that's the main reason I don't send them to school."
    About 500,000 Syrian refugees have sought shelter in neighbouring Jordan.
    Other countries also hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees in the region are Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
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