Nayrouz News Agency : The Government of Ireland has announced a new contribution of $1.1 million to support UNICEF’s work with vulnerable children in Jordan, including Syrian refugees.

In a statement on Wednesday, the UN agency said that the funding will support UNICEF’s health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and education programmes for vulnerable children and women in Jordan.

"The generous support from Ireland will help ensure that our lifesaving work for the most vulnerable children in refugee camps and the host community can continue during the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent this from becoming a child rights crisis,” UNICEF Jordan Representative Tanya Chapuisat said in the statement.

Announcing the funding, Irish Minister of State for the Diaspora and Development Ciarán Cannon said: "COVID-19 is severely affecting children who were already very vulnerable and bringing many more below the poverty line. The impacts of the virus on children are being made worse by the closure of schools and disruption of family incomes.”

"Ireland is proud to continue to partner with UNICEF in its valuable work in Jordan supporting these children and their caregivers,” he said.

Ireland’s contribution will support the provision of clean water and safe sanitation in refugee camps, where water provision has increased to respond to growing hygiene needs to protect refugees from the coronavirus and boost the climate-resilience of Jordan’s water-scarce communities, the agency said.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, UNICEF has distributed soap and supported hygiene awareness to over 120,000 refugees and other vulnerable populations.

The partnership is also helping to scale up UNICEF’s work with the Jordanian Ministry of Education to increase the provision of accessible and quality education to children in the Kingdom. This includes the critical window for Early Childhood Development in pre-primary years and non-formal education for those who have dropped out of school because of conflict, protection risks and economic hardship, according to the statement.

Ireland is also supporting UNICEF’s efforts with the Ministry of Health to deliver health and nutrition services to children and mothers in refugee camps and vulnerable communities, which has become "even more critical” since the emergence of COVID-19, the agency said.

Ireland is a "long-standing partner” of UNICEF in Jordan and has supported UNICEF’s work to strengthen national systems and provide essential services to children since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the statement concluded.