Jordan provided psychological support to 300,000 Syrian children

The United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) chief of child protection in Jordan, Maha Homsi, said that the organization's joint programs carried out with the Ministry of Social Development provided psychological and social support to about 300,000 Syrian children in the Kingdom in 2013 and 2014.
Homsi made the observation in an interview with Petra on the sidelines of the United Nation's refugee agency, the UNHCR's First Conference on Refugee Children held in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates.
She said that children are the most affected in the worsening Syrian crisis, praising Jordan's exceptional efforts in protecting and providing care to children.
The Director of Family and Children Directorate at the Ministry of Social Development, Mahmoud Jabour, said that the ministry had historically maintained close cooperation with UNICEF, through the latter's support for its projects.
He added that the refugee children's support mechanism requires various Jordanian institutions to take significant steps, notably issuing documents to refugee children, particularly those unaccompanied by parents. Taking care of them requires a court decision to put them into care homes or with foster families, he said.
Jabour stressed that the legal protection accorded to these children and their right to choose their lifestyle is the most important aspect in terms of protecting them from domestic or community violence or the abnormal conditions in which they live.
UNICEF has dealt with more than 2,500 cases of unaccompanied children who were reunited with their families or placed in alternative homes to protect them, while more than 6,000 children exposed to abuse were dealt with and put in intervention programs to address each problem, keeping privacy safeguards in mind.