50,000 school packs handed over by Dubai Cares to children affected

As part of its 'Back to School' initiative, Dubai Cares with the support of Save the Children distributed 50,000 school packs to children affected by the Syrian crisis in Jordan by giving them a very special start to the new school year. The school kits were distributed across five provinces in Jordan, Ajloun, Irbid, Karak, Ma’an, and Tafilleh.

Dubai Cares launched the ‘Back to School’ edition of its ‘Volunteer Emirates’ initiative in June of this year to support children driven from their homes in Syria into neighbouring Jordan due to the conflict. In alignment with the UAE’s 2017 ‘#Year of Giving’, the Dubai Cares initiative has received overwhelming support from the UAE community as 3,000 volunteers from all over the country came together to assemble the kits during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Speaking on the distribution of school packs in Jordan, Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer at Dubai Cares, said, "Equipping these school children with the necessary tools that would help provide a fresh start to the new academic year is in alignment with Dubai Cares’ commitment to help children affected by conflict and protracted crises to go back to school with minimum disruption. Dubai Cares’ initiative also recognises Union Coop’s immensely generous sponsorship of this initiative, supported by a group of UAE-based passionate volunteers, to provide hope for a brighter future to these children and remind them that the world has not abandoned them."

Rania Malik, Save the Children CEO, said, "On Behalf of Save the Children Jordan, I would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Dubai Cares for their generous support and their dedicated team and volunteers who assembled 50,000 backpacks and school kits which will be distributed among underprivileged students of all nationalities in host communities in Al-Karak, Ajloun, Irbid, Ma’an and Al-Tafileh. This support gives us such a great push forward to keep delivering hope to the most marginalised and deprived children across the Kingdom."

The United Nations Refugee Agency reported last year that school-aged children and youth accounted for almost one-third of the 633,644 officially-registered Syrian refugees, with more than 90,000 of these children being left without access to education. Due to this influx of refugees, public schools in Jordan have responded by restructuring the school day to accommodate both Jordanian and Syrian students.