50,000 back-to-school backpacks given by Dubai Cares to Syrian refugees

3,000 Dubai Cares volunteers assembled the backpacks, which were filled with school necessities

Syrian refugee children in Jordan received the backpacks, which were made by 3,000 UAE volunteers. Dubai Cares

Backpacks containing back-to-school necessities have been given to 50,000 Syrian children displaced in Jordan, thanks to Dubai Cares and Save the Children.

Dubai Cares launched the Back to School edition of its Volunteer Emirates initiative in June to support children driven from their homes in Syria into neighbouring Jordan due to the conflict, in alignment with the UAE’s Year of Giving spirit.

The 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 Ramadan.

The school kits were distributed across five provinces of Jordan - Ajloun, Irbid, Karak, Ma’an, and Tafilleh.

Tariq Al Gurg, chief executive of Dubai Cares, said the organisation was committed to helping children affected by conflict go back to school with minimum disruption.

“The initiative also recognises Union Coop’s immensely generous sponsorship for this initiative, supported by a group of passionate UAE volunteers, to provide hope for a brighter future to these children and remind them that the world has not abandoned them,” he said.

The chief of Save the Children thanked Dubai Cares for its support and its dedicated team and volunteers who assembled the backpacks and school kits.

“This support gives us such a great push forward to keep delivering hope to the most marginalised and deprived children across the Kingdom,” said Rania Malik.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported last year that school-aged children and young people accounted for almost one-third of the 633,644 officially registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, of whom more than 90,000 children do not have 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 pupils.