Thanks to the UNHCR project, Syrian child refugees like eight-year-old Hiba have a chance to attend school. (© UNHCR/Viktor Pesenti)

Düsseldorf (Germany), June 13, 2016 – GEA has donated EUR 25,000 to a project started by German aid organization UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe (UN Refugee Relief) to protect Syrian child refugees in Jordan. The UNHCR-backed project aims to supply Syrian refugee families with their basic needs and to allow child refugees to attend school.

"The financial support for families not only allows necessary educational materials to be purchased, it is also a vital step towards effectively fighting child labor because it helps ensure that children no longer have to contribute to the family income. Additionally, education is an important precondition for the future success of this generation," says Jürg Oleas, Chairman of the Executive Board of GEA.

Syrian child refugees, of whom more than 1.3 million now live in overcrowded housing facilities and camps in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, are physically and mentally impacted by the ongoing civil war in their homeland. The vast majority of them have no access to regular education. In Jordan, half of the school-age children of refugee families currently do not attend school at all. The Jordanian government allows all registered refugee children to attend public school. Still, enrolling and keeping Syrian children in Jordanian schools remains a challenge because many refugee parents are forced to choose between meeting their families' basic needs and sending their children to school. The circumstances of life in refuge and displacement often force children to contribute to their families' modest incomes - often under difficult and dangerous working conditions.

UNHCR is working with its partners to secure healthcare for child refugees, to modernize school facilities, to strengthen the Jordanian education system and to allow as many child refugees as possible to attend school.

UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe is the German donation partner for UNHCR, the refugee relief agency of the United Nations. Since 1980, it has promoted relief efforts for refugees at home and abroad. Today, the UNHCR is active in over 125 countries and is one of the world's largest relief agencies. For its efforts to support refugees, the UNHCR has twice been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.