Press Release

Anera Helps Needy Students in Jordan

December 22, 2009 | Washington, DC – Anera (American Near East Refugee Agency) is pleased to announce a $411,000 grant from UNESCO to help improve learning skills for vulnerable Iraqi and Jordanian students in Jordan.

This is Anera’s first collaboration with UNESCO, which C2090-617is trying to ease the pressure on Jordan’s public education system to provide expanded services for students at risk.

Under the program, Anera is organizing after-school programs in three schools in the greater Amman area in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The remedial classes will reach 700 children aged six to 18, half of whom will be displaced Iraqis. Anera is also providing nutritious snacks for participating students.

Anera president Bill Corcoran welcomed the opportunity to provide the much-needed academic support. “We are reaching out to vulnerable youth to help keep them in school and provide some of the building blocks for a productive future.”

Anera has been providing educational support for displaced Iraqi children since 2007, working in low-income neighborhoods of Amman and Zarqa.

In 2007, Jordan lifted restrictions on school attendance for Iraqi children lacking a residency permit but the government estimates that only eight out of ten Iraqi children attend school. A large number have inadequate educational and emotional preparation because of interrupted years C2090-619 during the Iraqi violence, financial and other restraints. One out of five drops out after primary school.