The Emirates Red Crescent has accelerated its efforts to help Syrian refugees in an attempt to keep up with the growing numbers fleeing to neighbouring countries.
Of the Dh130 million the UAE pledged earlier this year at a donor conference in Kuwait, 80 per cent has already been put to use for camp expansion and aid work in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.
“Since the conference, we have started putting the money in projects,” said Naema Al Mihiri, deputy general secretary for relief and development at ERC. “Our work has not ended yet, though.”
So far, Dh40m has been used in Jordan, Dh13m in Erbil, Iraq, and Dh12m in Lebanon. Other projects are yet to be announced.
“We first went there on visits to see what was urgently needed and what our priorities would be,” Ms Al Mihiri said. “Then we set the budgets. Now we are executing projects”
She said working in Erbil, with the Kurdish Regional Government, had been far less complicated than the work they were doing in Jordan, where they faced several obstacles.
This enabled ERC to open its first camp in Iraq earlier this year.
The most recent statistics from the UN reveal that more than 224,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Iraq.
“Now Erbil has about 10 camps, four of which are main camps,” Ms Al Mihiri said. “We support all of them.”
In one of the camps, the UAE has built its own tents, with plans for expansion.
“So far we have erected 150 tents,” she said. “These are special tents. Each has a toilet, a shower and a kitchen.”
Although ERC prefers building caravans for the refugees to shield them from harsh weather, Ms Al Mihiri said they were unable to do that in a camp already filled with tents to avoid sensitivities and quarrels.
“People would compare, they are human in the end,” she said. “But we built the tents on cemented ground and raised them. So if there is rain, the floor of the tent would not be affected.”
She said they were also conducting projects for schools in the camps.
“The Erbil government is very cooperative. They allowed the UAE to work well,” she said. “It has been different to working in Zaatari [Jordan]. There, it was a little random.”
She said work on expanding the UAE-funded Emirates-Jordanian camp in Mreejab Al Fhood near Al Zarqa city was well under way and would accommodate 10,000 refugees when complete.
According to ERC’s chairman, Dr Hamdan Musalam Al Mazrouei, the organisation has sent 18 consignments from Abu Dhabi to Jordan and Lebanon, including more than 3,000 tonnes of food, shelter and medical supplies.
Most recently, Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, UNHCR Eminent Advocate, visited the UAE’s camp in Jordan, touring its schools and playgrounds.
Other women’s groups, including police officers headed by Maj Amina Al Balushi, followed in Sheikha Jawaher’s footsteps and made the trip to Jordan to offer aid and help upgrade medical services.
“Having visited refugees in different camps, I am proud to say the UAE Red Crescent’s campaign, ‘Our Hearts are with the Syrian People’, is doing great work in serving the refugee families in need,” Sheikha Jawaher said.
“I wish to see the camp expand and provide refuge to even more refugee families, which is what the Red Crescent team in Jordan is aiming to do.”
She added that now was not the time for donor fatigue “but for whole-hearted sacrifice”.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has said that by the end of the year the number of internally displaced and refugee Syrians will outnumber those who are lucky enough to still have a home.
osalem@thenational.ae