World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

While the official camp population figure is now around 130,000, refugees are allowed to come and go. On any given day, the camp’s population is around 100,000 people, of whom 75 percent are women and children.

WFP plans to provide food assistance to half a million Syrian refugees in Jordan by the end of June 2013. It only costs about US$1 to provide food to a Syrian refugee for a day in Jordan. In March, WFP will deliver food assistance to 260,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan through food vouchers and direct distributions. WFP operation to feed refugees in neighbouring countries is severely underfunded.

A Syrian mother preparing lunch using her family’s WFP food rations. To allow refugees prepare their own meals in some 250 communal kitchens around Zaatari camp. In March, WFP will feed up to 142,000 people in Zaatari camp.

WFP is distributing every day around 400,000 portions of freshly baked bread to refugees in Zaatari camp. At the same time, WFP continues to provide packed meals to new arrivals in the camp, many of whom have made long and risky journeys to the Jordanian border.

A Syrian refugee receiving his bi-monthly food ration at a WFP distribution point in the camp. Elsewhere in Jordan, WFP is assisting more than 100,000 Syrians through food vouchers that they can exchange in selected shops. WFP is planning to introduce food vouchers at Zaatari camp, once shops have been set up.

In March, WFP will start providing children in Zaatari camp schools with date bar snacks packed with vitamins and micronutrients. The school snack encourages them to attend school and gives them energy to focus on their studies during the day.

WFP distribution centre against a backdrop of menacing clouds. Syrians in the camp lived through a harsh winter in difficult living conditions. They hope for a spring that will not only bring warmth, but peace to the country they left and terribly miss.