This summer of fleeing masses and drowned bodies was an eye-opener for the world, but the Syrian refugee crisis has been worsening for years since the outbreak of the civil war.
The Zaatari and Zarqa refugee camps are the largest in Jordan, and because of the escalating crisis, the handful of schools operating within them have shut down due to lack of supplies, says Nora Mostafa, Director of Operations at Marwa Fayed’s Toy Run.
Since 90% of the UNHCR’s relief efforts are focused on providing basics — shelter, food and clothing — education has been pushed down on the list of priorities, Mostafa explains.
With a mission to help bring education back to these camps, MFTR in partnership with DHL are conducting donation drives focused on sending much-needed educational supplies to Zaatari and Zarqa.
In October, with the help of the Rotary Clubs of Heliopolis El Nozha and Zayed and a passionate team of volunteers and supporters, they successfully sent 5,000 packages of school provisions and 18,000 elementary school books to Jordan.
Batch two starts this week for the month of November with a goal of supplying 5,000 more packages and completing another book drive. Mostafa says the initiative is ongoing and encourages people to help in any way they can.
In 2013, close to six million Syrian children were in need of aid, including over one million in refugee camps – a “lost generation” of youth displaced by their homeland’s ongoing unrest. And that was two years before this summer’s surge of refugees escaping to Europe.
Today, the fourth largest city in Jordan is the Zaatari refugee camp, which in August was called home by over 80,000 Syrians. The population growth in the camp became so unmanageable that last year, the Zarqa refugee camp was opened to accommodate newcomers.
For more information and to help bring education back to Syrian refugee children, go to MFTR’s Facebook page or call +201205700010.
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