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Orlando Bloom sees how Syrian refugee children live in Jordan camps


Film star Orlando Bloom saw how the Syrian conflict has devastated families and their children when he visited a refugee camp in Jordan.

The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador went to Za’atari camp near the Syrian border, where more than 100,000 refugees are living.

Orlando said: “These children have witnessed more extreme violence than any child should.

“What is most terrifying is that they become a lost generation. Without urgently needed education, protection and psychological support their pain and bitterness will turn into aggression years from now.”

 

The British actor meets Syrian refugee children in Irbid, Jordan Picture: UNICEF

The British star of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie trilogies and the Pirates of the Caribbean series went to a UNICEF-supported school that gives children a sense of structure and normality to their otherwise stressful lives.

Orlando also visited a Syrian family in Irbid who fled from the violence in Aleppo two years ago.

He said: “These are families that had lives most of us can relate to. Parents had jobs. Kids went to school and got to play.

“This war obliterated their lives and uprooted them from their homes and now they are living in precarious situations with little or no hope for their futures.

Orlando sits in on a class at a boys’ school in Irbid Picture: UNICEF

“They don’t want to live like refugees, with no dignity or respect. They just want their lives back and a future for their children.”

Almost 600,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan to escape the fighting in their homeland. Syrians have also taken refuge in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, bringing their total number to about 2.5 million – half of them children.

A World at School featured recently the experiences of a Syrian teacher at a school for refugees in Jordan.