Helping the ‘forgotten’ refugees of Syria
The influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan – more than 620,000 were registered by December 2014 – has led to the establishment of several large officially-run refugee camps. They include the Zataari camp near Mafraq, which houses more than 80,000 Syrians and is the world’s second largest refugee camp.
As well as these camps however, a large number of Syrians are in unofficial settlements and smaller camps which have sprung up around Jordan. As a result, they do not receive the aid and support of government and aid agencies that the more established facilities do.
Islamic Help’s work includes delivering aid to refugees who are in danger of becoming forgotten communities. In the governate of Ma’an, we set up a programme to distribute clothes and footwear to about 4,000 beneficiaries.
We also provided stationery and gifts to refugee children in local schools and supplies to hospitals.
Our Jordan country manager, Khalid Alsoudani, explained: “These locations are about 280 km from the capital Amman, and nobody comes to these areas to help the refugees.
“There are about 5,000 refugee families in this area and there are issues about helping Syrian refugees. This is our aim, to help them in all parts of Jordan, from north to south and east to west.”
