Until May 17, roughly 1,600 refugees arrived every day in Zaatari, Jordan’s largest refugee camp. In recent days the number has fallen to close to zero. This raises questions about why refugees are not able to cross the border.

With thousands of refugees fleeing Syria every day, your donations are helping local Church organisations to provide desperately needed aid.

“This is a nightmare. We will wake up soon to find ourselves in our beloved Syria,” says Ismail, a 30-year-old refugee from the Syrian city of Homs. “I feel sometimes that this is all just a dream, but then the difficulties hit you and I know it is our reality now.”

“I’m deeply sad inside, but I need to appear strong in front of my family,” says a man called Mahmood while sitting in the narrow room he now shares with his wife and six-year-old son in the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in Saida, Lebanon. Until almost two months ago, he’d been living in another camp for Palestinians, this one in Damascus, but the conflict in Syria had made it impossible to stay.

Australia is giving international relief agencies an extra $12 million to help them respond to the humanitarian crisis unfolding as thousands more flee the fighting in Syria.

Since the fighting began, more than 1.5 million people have fled Syria. By the end of the year, these numbers could reach 3.6 million. Every day more than 5,000 Syrians cross into the neighbouring countries of Lebanon and Jordan.

Water, sanitation, education and housing services are being severely strained. Three quarters of those fleeing the conflict into Lebanon and Jordan are women and children.

The latest Inter-Agency Regional Response update highlights that the refugee population planning figure for June 2013 has already been exceeded by 40 per cent.

ARSAL, Lebanon, May 23 (UNHCR) – It's test day at the Arsal Public Second Shift Middle School and the students in the 8th Grade maths class are engrossed in their exam. They factor numbers, write a series of equations in the form of a single power – all in French, a language they have come to learn only since starting school here in north-east Lebanon two months ago.

"These children come to school with a deep desire for learning," says Ali Hujeiri, 55, the school principal. "They know what they've missed and now they appreciate the value of their education."