AMMAN, JORDAN, 8 May 2013 – When I arrived in Jordan for my third mission on April 5th, Za’atari camp had more than 100,000 refugees; five times the amount since my first visit 8 months ago in September 2012. The total number of refugees spread over 4 countries is more than 1.4 million Syrian people today (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey). The needs are great and it’s hard to keep up. UNICEF uses a 20 per cent factor to plan for education service delivery; that is an estimate of 280,000 displaced school age children in the region. In Za’atari alone we are delivering 3.5 million litres of water every day to meet the demand of refugees.
MASHTA EL HAMMOUD, Lebanon, 17 April 2012 – Stepping off their minibus in the mountain village of Mashta el Hammoud, in northern Wadi Khaled, a group of children scampers up the stone steps to their classrooms. While the prospect of maths and Arabic classes may not seem attractive, there’s no mistaking these youngsters’ eagerness for the afternoon that lies ahead.
There’s a special reason for their enthusiasm: Many of the students are Syrian, and this weekly visit to an NGO centre is helping them reclaim the educations that were forced to abandon when they fled the violence gripping their homeland.
MA’AN, Jordan, 8 March 2012 – On a cold February day, Syrian refugee children and their parents gathered at the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) Centre, a UNICEF partner, in the southern Jordanian town of Ma’an.
NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.
25 September 2008 – Iraqi children flood Damascus schools putting pressure on education system
Iraqi children head to schools in Damascus at the beginning of the new school year. Their families fled the conflict in Iraq, and schools in Syria are now overcrowded
DAMASCUS, Syria, 2008 – Palestinian children residing in Husseiniyeh camp here are suffering from overcrowded classrooms and double-shift schools. Faced with staggering challenges outside the classroom, children are now in danger of losing their right to a quality education.
