UNHCR campaign raises over $2m in less than one week for Syrian refugees

AMMAN — In less than one week since its launch, a fundraising campaign has collected more than $2 million in donations for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

Launched by Ahmad Al Shugairi, presenter of popular television programme Khawater (Thoughts) broadcast on MBC, in cooperation with UNHCR, the campaign seeks to help Syrian refugees in the Kingdom.

The target of the campaign, launched on World Refugee Day in one of the programme’s episodes, is to support 12,000 Syrian families in Jordan with $1,500 per family. 

It falls under the “Urgent Lifeline Appeal”. 

Cash donated in this campaign will be given directly to families who desperately need it, according to the UNHCR website on http://donate.unhcr.org/ar/lifeline-en/

The campaign was launched at a time when UN agencies and Syrian-refugee host countries are facing a shortfall in funds needed to provide services for refugees.

A UN report issued last week showed that UN agencies need around $1.2 billion in Jordan, and have so far received $272 million from donors.

There are 1.4 million Syrians in the Kingdom, only half of them registered as refugees. 

According to the report, 86 per cent of urban refugees in Jordan live below the poverty line, 10 per cent of whom are under the abject poverty line.

Half of Syrian refugees in the Kingdom are also highly shelter vulnerable, according to the “3RP Regional Progress Report” prepared by relief agencies involved in the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) in response to the Syria Crisis.

The proportion of Syrian refugee households considered food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity in the Kingdom has risen from 47 per cent in 2014 to 86 per cent in 2015, according to relief agencies.

Funding is currently only available to meet the primary healthcare needs of 40 per cent of non-camp refugees, leaving some 312,000 people unsupported.

Water and wastewater services for 3 million refugees and host community members are in jeopardy, the agencies said. 

Moreover, one in five Syrian refugee families have withdrawn their children from school and 13 per cent are sending under-age children to work.