Sharjah
With every passing day, the number of Syrian refugees rises as the ongoing Syrian conflict rages.
Children as young as a few month old to elderly people over 60 have been torn from their houses and fled for their lives to nearby countries to escape the terror and death that have befallen their home country.
The Big Heart Campaign, launched by Shaikha Jawaher Bint Mohammad Al Qasimi, Wife of Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and UNHCR Eminent Advocate for Refugee Children, will run until August and aims to help the distraught Syrian children and give them hope of a better life.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) most recent data, more than 1.65 million Syrians have so far fled their homeland. If current trends persist, the UNHCR expects that over 3 million Syrians would have left their country by the end of 2013.
An official at the UNHCR in the UAE explained that the number of refugees who have fled Syria is higher as not all Syrians come forward to register. He also noted that the numbers of refugees is growing with every passing day.
UNHCR statistics also show that there has been a large increase of refugees in 2013, with over one million refugees arriving in the first five months of this year alone. Women and children make up three quarters of the refugee population.
News report after news report has described the dire conditions that the Syrians have fled from — sometimes with nothing but the clothes on their back — to take refugee in nearby countries, where they live in camps, on the streets or are hosted by families at the host countries.
Most Syrian refugees have taken refuge in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees with 545,795 registered refugees, Jordan with 478,007, Turkey with 386,927, Iraq with 158,663 and Egypt with 81,487, according to UNHCR data.
The need for funds to help the influx of refugees exceeds the money available, as the UNHCR data states that the money needed exceeds $2.9 billion (Dh10.64 billion), but the funds received by June was just above $840 million.
