UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has now started receiving donor funding that allows for critical winter assistance to the most vulnerable refugee women, men and children in Jordan.
Nawal, a Syrian refugee and single mother of five, receives an SMS that she will receive winter cash assistance from UNHCR. Pictured alongside her youngest daughter Raneem, 10, at home in Amman. After fleeing her home in Daraa, Syria in 2013, her husband sadly passed away from cancer in 2016, as a result Nawal is the sole provider for her family. “Last winter was very hard on us, we didn’t receive any assistance. At least this year we will be able to buy new blankets and do some repairs to the roof to stop the water leaking.”
In the first half of December, UNHCR will distribute one-time winter cash assistance to vulnerable refugees of different nationalities, including Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Sudanese and others. The assistance will go to refugees in communities across the Kingdom and in refugee camps.
UNHCR’s winter cash will help these families cover the necessary needs during the harsh winter season, including shelter and home maintenance, warm shoes for their children, gas cylinders and firewood for heating, among others.
UNHCR has recently received important funding from the US, the European Union and the Netherlands, but also from the Qatar Fund for Development which together sustained the Agency’s cash for basic needs programme. A significant contribution of flexible funding also came from Germany recently which allows UNHCR to provide critical support to vulnerable refugee families in Jordan.
UNHCR’s cash assistance has become a lifeline for those refugees that were most affected by the combined economic shock of COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis, including the rise in utility costs.
The amount of winter cash assistance is standardized and depends on their vulnerability and on other assistance they may be receiving. More families are in need, and their vulnerabilities are likely to increase during the cold months. Therefore, UNHCR continues to seek additional donor support towards its largely unfunded winter appeal.
ENDS
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
International media: Roland Schönbauer, +962 79 119 25 32, [email protected]
Jordanian media: Meshal Elfayez, +962 79 704 53 91, [email protected]
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