Caritas Australia, the Catholic Church’s international aid and development agency, will continue to play a lead role in humanitarian efforts to help Syrian refugees, following the announcement of extra financial support from AusAID.
The $4 million allocated through the AusAID Humanitarian Partnership Agreement will enable Caritas Australia and three other Australian humanitarian agencies to rapidly respond to the crisis following massive refugee influxes in Jordan and Lebanon.
Caritas Australia will work with Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Jordan to help vulnerable Syrian refugees who are living alongside the Jordanian host communities outside the official refugee camps. These refugees are particularly vulnerable as most humanitarian assistance is provided to people living in official camps.
Caritas Australia CEO, Jack de Groot, said that civil war in Syria is creating one of the world’s major humanitarian emergencies.
“This money provided by AusAID will help deliver more life-saving humanitarian support for these refugees who’ve been through so much,” Mr de Groot said.
“Many people have been exposed to horrible scenes typical of war and human rights abuses such as imprisonment and trauma.”
“As the influx of refugees in the Northern parts of Jordan are depleting the services available, the UNHCR and development agencies are forecasting that an increasing number of existing and newly-arrived Syrian refugees will start moving toward the Southern part of the country to seek employment opportunities in the agriculture sector.
“Caritas Jordan has worked with various refugee groups in Syria for the past 40 years and has been working to help Syrian refugees since this crisis began. They have a great geographic outreach and are one of the few development agencies that are currently operating and providing assistance in the South of Jordan.
“Furthermore, Caritas Jordan reports that many new arrivals from Syria were internally displaced for 6-12 months prior to leaving Syria,” Mr de Groot said.
“They could not afford to leave their homes in the first place. The internal displacement and lack of access to services within Syria has further depleted their financial resources which makes them less able to cope with the inflated costs of residing in Jordan. With limited livelihood opportunities at hand they are in dire need of any assistance the international community and local organisations can give.”
Caritas Jordan will provide essential shelter assistance, bedding, cooking items and hygiene kits to assist these Syrian refugees in the South of Jordan with their immediate needs. This project forms part of a larger response by Caritas Jordan, which since March 2011 has assisted over 17,000 Syrian households (approximately 85,000 individuals).
“As a Catholic aid and development network, Caritas has a mandate to work with the poorest of the poor,” said Mr de Groot.
“The Caritas network including Caritas Jordan, Caritas Lebanon and Caritas Turkey have a long-established presence in the region and we will continue to work to ease the suffering of Syrian refugees.
“We are proud of the great work our partners are doing to find and stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable refugees; helping to protect their dignity and helping to relieve some of the devastation they have experienced.”
“This project, funded by the Australian Government, means that Caritas Jordan can now reach another 2000 households (10,000 individuals), including some local families in Jordan who have experienced a severe impact on their livelihoods and cost of living with the influx of people.”
Two years of conflict in Syria has caused more than 70,000 deaths and four million people are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Caritas is a partner of the Humanitarian Partnership Agreement between AusAID and six of Australia’s leading International NGOs, together they are responding rapidly to global disasters and to build resilience to future crises.
Media contact: Nicole Clements 0408 869 833 or nicolec@caritas.org.au
Photos of Caritas’ work with Syrian refugees are available on request.