Syrian children are struggling to survive; they are failing to gain normalcy back into their lives as refugees. According to the the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “More than half of 2.2 million Syrian refugees are children, with many facing grave dangers even outside the war zone.”1
Living in a tent fails to protect children from fear in the night, hunger, illness, and the bitter cold. Many of the refugees left Syria with little more then the clothing on their backs. The household tools they need in the camps sometimes become available by donations, but more then often are available only for money. Most refugees will never have a proper bed inside the camp; they are nearly destitute and dependent on donations for household items, food, and medical care. Their lives are forever changed by leaving Syria. The U.N. announced over a year ago that the countries bordering Syria are facing a humanitarian crisis of mass proportions because of the lack of supplies for refugees.
Employment for adult refugees is almost impossible outside of the camp. The communities around the camps can’t handle the influx of newly unemployed refugees and have a tendency to reject them.
The UNHCR reports in Lebanon there are 385,007 children refugees: 80% of them are not in school; in Jordan there are 291,238 children refugees, 56% of whom are not in school. Children are now being actively recruited by the locals for day labor and being paid little to nothing for their hard work from the small shops and businesses inside of the camp. Sometimes that is enough of an incentive to keep children from going to school. All too often children are becoming a family’s only source of income. In Zaatari camp in Jordan (population estimated at 144,000) there are over 3,000 shops selling just about anything you can imagine; unfortunately there are many children working in the shops.
In Lebanon and Jordan, “Over 70,000 Syrian refugee families live without fathers and over 3,700 refugee children are either unaccompanied by or separated from both parents.”2 With numbers like that, there is a real concern that some children will not be able to avoid going to work and will elect to sacrifice their education for money. There is good news; as time goes on there seem to be more adults trying to build of businesses inside of the camps and becoming more economically independent.In order to address the issue of education for Syrian children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNHCR, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) used October and November 2013 to promote educational programs in the camps. In Lebanon they were able to come up with a program that included 70 schools operating 2nd shift schools for the refugee children. The Zaatari camp now has become the fifth most populated city in Jordan. The educational needs are not quit as easy to manage as those in Lebanon, Zaatari has become a work in progress with deadlines set for the first of the year to help integrate children into school.
Iraq, Egypt and Turkey are also dealing with the same problems with the children in the camps. It seems to be a universal problem for Syrian children leaving their war-torn country and joining the refugee status. You can make a positive difference for Syrian refugees by getting involved and joining in with organizations that are providing help.
Ways to help Syrians Today
Text SYRIA at 864233 to donate $10 to Syrian refugees and help keep them warm this winter. (UNICEF)
1Syria war ‘damaging a generation of children’, UN warns. BBC article November 29, 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25125957
2 Child recruitment, child labour, discrimination and loneliness – the crisis of Syria’s refugee children http://www.unhcr.org/5297409e6.html
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