Children walk near flooding in tented settlement Jordan. Photo: Karl Schembri/Oxfam (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Gas Heaters, Bottles, Carpets and Winter Clothing for Hundreds of Families in Al Mafraq
(LWI) – As the Syrian conflict rages, and the cold wave and rainfall sweep across Jordan, the growing number of Syrians living in camps and host communities considerably strains the capacity to provide services for the refugees and increases their vulnerability.
Jordan, where The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) provides assistance to refugees in camps and host communities, currently hosts more than 567,000 people who have fled Syria. At the Za’atri refugee camp, home to around 100,000 Syrians, the LWF supports the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Jordanian government.
By mid this week, the LWF emergency program in Jordan had distributed winter relief items such as gas heaters and bottles, carpets, blankets and clothing to 860 families in Al Mafraq Governorate in the north. An additional 150 families in the area will receive similar items this weekend. This is part of a large-scale winterization program aimed at supporting 3,000 additional families.
“The situation of refugees in both camps and host communities is difficult and a large percentage of families are not prepared for winter,” says Mr Nader Duqmaq, manager of the LWF emergency program in Jordan.
“In Za’atri camp, the rain has flooded numerous tents and the strong wind has uprooted many tents. Many families whose tents were damaged moved to the caravans of their neighbors to be protected from rain,” Duqmaq reports on the current situation.
He points out that most of the Za’atri camp areas are “full of mud,” making it difficult to walk around. In addition, majority of the camp areas do not have electricity, “which means that even those families who own electric heaters can’t use them.”
The LWF’s partnership with UNHCR and the Jordanian government started in 2012 at a time when the country hosted around 105,000 refugees from Syria, including some 25,000 at the Za’atri camp. Camp residents initially received winterization kits and heaters for tents, blankets and quilts, basic food and other non-food items, and mental health and psychosocial support. The numbers and needs in the camp have since grown significantly, making the situation dire for many of the people there.
Today, LWF’s support to refugees and host communities living in Al Mafraq includes training in peace and conflict mitigation; construction of additional classrooms to expand the capacity of local schools to accommodate the refugees; and vocational training for Jordanian and Syrian women to help them generate income to sustain themselves and their families.
An estimated 2.3 million refugees from Syria are living in neighboring countries and another 6.5 million people have been internally displaced since the current conflict began in March 2011.
