UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

Published purpose

April 2016 - The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to deteriorate as a result of the civil war and intensified violence in the country. The United Nations estimates that 12.2 million people inside Syria, including 5.6 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance. Combined with over 4 million Syrians seeking refuge from the conflict in neighbouring countries, including Jordan, this is one of the largest numbers of people displaced from conflict in the world. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of the conflict and host countries are increasingly overstretched by the influx of people fleeing the conflict. With GAC's support, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) responds to the education and health needs of children in Jordan and Syria. Project activities include: (1) supporting up to 35 Makani centres, which use a holistic approach to provide alternative education, psychosocial support and life skills, in Jordan and providing up to 16,000 out-of-school children with informal education opportunities, life-skills and psychosocial support services; (2) providing up to 3,500 vulnerable children in Jordan currently ineligible for formal education with catch-up classes; (3) increasing education opportunities and provision of school supplies or self-learning material to up to 400,000 vulnerable children in Syria, including those living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas; and (4) providing routine vaccination to approximately 800,000 conflict-affected at-risk children in Syria through a nation-wide immunization campaign.