Brussels, 08/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - An additional €4.6 million will be mobilised by the European Union in favour of UNICEF to fund, as an emergency, education programmes in Jordan to benefit Syrian refugees, bringing the EU's total contribution to this cause to €10 million in 2012. Syrian children living in camps in Jordan and the local communities which host them will be the beneficiaries of the money.
This decision was announced in Amman on Sunday 7 October by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, during their joint visit to a school opened last week in the refugee camp of Zaatari, in the north of Jordan.
The money will pay for teaching and teachers' salaries, school fees, books and other school equipment, psychological support to children who need it and other costs arising from the school years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.
“We have to ensure that families who have had to flee their countries can live in decent conditions and that their children do not lose their right to education and a brighter future”, said Barroso.
Lake stressed that “these schools can become oases of physical and psychological peace for Syrian children who have experienced what no child should. Here they can play and learn and heal and be children again”.
The European Union has supported access to education for vulnerable Syrian children since the last school year, including its funding, via UNICEF, of formal and informal education and psychological support in Jordanian host communities.
The Zaatari school currently has 2,200 school-aged children. Its capacity will be increased to 5,000 pupils, and UNICEF is preparing to face growing educational needs. (AN/transl.fl)