CARE Int’l project to ‘improve protection, resilience’ of refugees, host communities

AMMAN — The NGO Care International on Thursday announced the launching of a new $3-million project aimed at “improving the protection and resilience” of over 130,000 refugees and vulnerable Jordanians impacted by the Syrian refugee crisis.

Funded by the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the project is part of CARE International’s portfolio to support displaced populations and host communities in Jordan, building on a previous initiative funded by the same department and due mid-July 2018. 

In a new approach to providing support, CARE Protection Programme Manager Adel Aldahien told The Jordan Times that the new plan includes conditional cash assistance for education (CCE), targeting refugee and vulnerable Jordanian children out of school. 

“Parents will be provided with a monthly payment to support the family provided that their children are sent back to school,” Aldahien explained, expressing the NGO’s hopes to “change the lives of children out of the formal education system and enhance the situation of their families, preventing them from falling victims of exploitation and child labour”. 

As a part of the same initiative, CARE’s team will work on teacher capacity building in partnership with the Jordan River Foundation (JRF)’s Madrasati (“my school” in Arabic) initiative, aiming to improve the provision of remedial education and expand other education-related activities.

“Community-based organisations [CBOs] and local community committees will also be a target in the field of capacity building,” Aldahien added, noting that “local organisations will be provided with trainings on issues such as gender or child protection in order to start their own initiatives in their area”. 

In addition, several activities will be implemented in the areas of case management, psychosocial support, livelihoods, child protection, job placement and vocational training. 

Seeking to include refugee groups from Somalia, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen as well as Syrians and host community members, the NGO will select the beneficiaries through a case management system of registration and evaluation, which will assess the needs of the candidates and the services they are eligible to receive. 

Concerning the target groups, Aldahien noted that the project will have a “particular focus” on the needs of women and children, as these are the “most vulnerable categories” according to CARE’S annual assessment reports. 

“All family members in the household will, of course, be assisted,” he continued, adding that “however, our reports have shown women and children to be at higher risk of issues such as early child marriage, exploitation or lack of access to education and resources of income”.

The activities are set to be implemented in urban neighbourhoods across the governorates of Irbid, Mafraq, Zarqa, Azraq and Amman.

“The selected areas are not only the ones with the highest concentration of refugees, but the ones considered to be the most vulnerable even for Jordanians,” Aldahien said.