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It is great to hear about your impressive Wrap-up for Christmas initiative and GulfWeekly’s dedication towards assisting those in need.

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to our appeal that aims to secure emergency cash assistance for 12,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugee families living outside camps in Jordan through an online digital fundraising drive before the end of the year.

I am not sure if you are aware, but over 85 per cent of the more than 625,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan live outside camps, which means that after four years of displacement, what little savings they had have been depleted and they have to resort to desperate means to survive, which is why UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) launched the Lifeline Appeal, to save the families.

Basic information about the Lifeline Appeal:
More than 625,000 Syrian refugee families live in Jordan, 86 per cent of whom live in urban settings
Two-out-of-three Syrian refugee families live below the absolute poverty line in Jordan
There are more than 6,000 families on the waiting list for the cash assistance programme
On average, a Syrian family needs only $1,500 to secure its basic necessities
Donations are made online through a secured portal
Refugees directly receive the cash assistance through ATMs, and using the IRIS scan
There are no overhead costs for the donations

So far, we have succeeded in saving almost half of the families in need. That being said, there are still families on the cash assistance waiting list. Here are the links in English and in Arabic:
Arabic: https://donate.unhcr.org/ArLifeline, English: https://donate.unhcr.org/JOLifeline

Dalia,
ELFIKI@unhcr.org

A great number of ‘Box Appeal’ boxes filled with predetermined items were collected by The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence & Spa representatives from Naseem International School.

The received boxes were filled with essential everyday items, such as T-shirts, toothpaste, disposable razors and shaving cream, and will then be distributed across Bahrain to those in need.

The Box Appeal social charity initiative is run by Radisson Blu and Park Inn Hotels in Bahrain, the UAE, Bahrain and Cairo and is aimed to assist low-income workers.

Maryam Al-Maskati,
marketing executive.