“Last year when the camp opened on 29 July 2012, it was nowhere in the desert. There was absolutely nothing,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Communications Officer in Jordan, Mark Vergara, told UN Radio.

Housing more than 120,000 – half of them children – the site has become the fourth largest city in Jordan and is also the world’s second largest refugee camp behind Dadaab in eastern Kenya.

The camp has made progress. It has three “very well provided” hospitals, Vergara said, resulting in better health care for the refugees than the general population. “Mortality rates are lower than outside of the camp,” Vergara said.

He noted that while food, water and sanitation remain key priorities at the camp, a major challenge is education for the 30,000 children that are able to go to school.

“Only 12,000 are registered,” Vergara said. He added that financial strains necessitating children to work and concerns of insecurity are also challenges to school attendance.

“Parents are reluctant to let the child – especially the daughters – walk through the camp to school. We have created some assembly points to escort the children. It’s not really dangerous, but more cases of harassment,” he added.

Lack of electricity in schools, particularly combined with hot temperatures and the holy-month of Ramadan when fasting is obligatory, has also dulled attendance.

In addition, students follow a Jordanian curriculum in the camp, which also adds to the overall challenges.

“But it’s very important that these children as much as possible do go to school because even if the war stops today, which of course is unlikely, unfortunately, it will take years to rebuild Syria. And of course, who will rebuild Syria but the kids who are now in host countries in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and of course, in Jordan,” Vergara said.

UNICEF is due to start a massive back-to-school campaign next month working with communities, parents and religious leaders in the camp to get children into classrooms and have them stay there.

Following a visit to the region earlier in the month, Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said without a political solution to the conflict in Syria, the country faces “a generation of angry, illiterate adults.”

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced.

Vergara said one of the challenges facing the UN agency and its partners in the camp is how to plan for its future; the camp has already been in use longer than originally expected.

“Life is not perfect in Za’atari,” he said. “If you ask people around the camp the only thing they want to do is go back to Syria and nothing can replace home. But at the end of the day, they are here because they have no alternative.”

UNICEF in Jordan has appealed for $115 million towards the end of 2013 to assist the needs of the refugees. A bit over half of that amount has been funded, according to the UN agency.

“That is not bad, but the question now is not 2013, it is about 2014 maybe 2015,” Vergara said. “How much of this is sustainable? It is a very expensive operation and people are still coming in. It really depends on what happens on the other side of the border.”

Widespread flooding has occurred, swamping tents and overwhelming the drainage system in the Za’atari camp, with deep mud making it harder to drain the water and for water-removal trucks to access the camp, UNICEF noted in a news release.

Areas containing several so-called child friendly spaces – where children can play, learn and receive psychosocial support – have been flooded, and a tent used to shelter unaccompanied minors has collapsed.

“The next 72 hours will be a critical test of our ability to meet the basic needs of children and their families at Za’atari,” said the UNICEF Representative in Jordan, Dominique Hyde. “Alongside the Government of Jordan and our other partners, we are doing everything possible to ensure services are maintained and that children stay warm and dry.”

The deteriorating situation at the Za’atari camp comes amid a continuing influx of refugees from across the border, fleeing the violence in Syria, where more than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011.

Recent months have witnessed an escalation in the conflict, which is now in its 23rd month. Since the beginning of January this year, close to 10,000 Syrians have sought safety in Jordan.

Mr. Hyde added that a lack of funding was a major constraint on relief activities.

“The resources we raised in 2012 have been exhausted, and no fresh funds have come for this year,” he said. “We urgently appeal to the international community and donors in general to commit fresh funding as soon as possible.”

UNICEF stated that it and its partners are working “around the clock” to sustain the provision of services to people in Za’atari camp, and in particular, to ensure that all refugees have access to water, latrines and showers.

The UN agency has distributed emergency warm clothing along with sleeping mats to replace mattresses soaked by the rain. Heaters have been distributed to families now living in prefabricated buildings within the camp.

In relation to funding for relief activities, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will chair a high-level conference later this month to raise funds to alleviate the worsening plight of millions of Syrians affected by the ongoing conflict.

The conference, to be held on 30 January in Kuwait, follows a $1.5 billion appealed launched in December by the United Nations and its partners, who have been hampered in their efforts to carry out relief activities due to lack of funds.

The bulk of the appeal – $1 billion – is to support refugees fleeing Syria to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. It is based on planning estimates that up to a million Syrian refugees will need help during the first half of 2013.

Another $519 million will be needed to support an estimated four million people inside Syria who need urgent humanitarian assistance, including an estimated two million internally displaced persons.