Help us help those in need this Christmas Syrian-Kurdish refugee families stand in queues to get aid food at a refugee camp. RECENT news report claimed Australians were expected to spend just short of $30 billion celebrating Christmas this year, a big increase on recent years. The average Australian will spend $1280, reflecting just how well off we are. I was recently in Jordan and they are not doing anywhere near as well. An influx of more than 600,000 refugees fleeing the violence in neighbouring Syria has put the brakes on a debt-burdened economy. Jordan's Central Bank governor believes the humanitarian crisis in Syria will reduce his country's GDP growth by at least 2 per cent this year. Despite that impact, I was amazed by Jordanians' generosity towards Syrian refugees. It is often said that charity begins at home and that is certainly true of Jordanians in the village of Aqraba, not far from the Syrian border. Sitting high on a plateau, the village overlooks a strip of disputed land that has swapped between the two sides of the Syrian conflict. It's so close you can hear missiles exploding and see the night sky light up as they detonate. Despite being among the poorest places in Jordan, when Syrian refugees started pouring across the border, the community in Aqraba opened their homes, offering shelter, food and safety. I met one Jordanian elder who, on seeing a Syrian woman begging for help - something considered shameful in Jordanian culture - called on community members to financially support refugees. His efforts alone helped 72 families. The Jordanians also invited Syrian children to go to the local school and raised money for uniforms, books and backpacks. No doubt this Christmas - a public holiday in Jordan - the olive branch will be extended further. But such generosity has taken its toll. Water is scarce in Jordan and the increase in demand has caused levels to fall, requiring expensive drilling. The sewerage system is struggling to cope and schools are under pressure, too. In order to teach all the children, class sizes have increased from about 30 to 50 or more and class times have reduced from 45 minutes to 30 minutes to allow schools to operate morning and afternoon shifts. According to a recent study by the World Giving Index, more Australians have, on average, donated money, volunteered time or helped a stranger in the past month than any other country. Save the Children is using funds generously raised in Australia to help Syrian refugees like the ones I visited in Aqraba. Our programs provide informal education to supplement formal schooling - helping Syrian children catch up, while making sure Jordanian children don't fall behind either. The students told me how Save the Children's programs had improved their confidence and the school principal said children now looked at themselves differently. But the conflict in Syria is dragging into a third year and no end is in sight. The war is complicated, man-made and taking place in a country few Australians have visited. That's probably why Save the Children Australia has raised more money in a week for Filipino families affected by Typhoon Haiyan than in the past 12 months for the Syrian refugee crisis. Children and families in the Philippines urgently need help - more than 11 million people were affected by the typhoon and thousands killed, including many children. But in the Middle East, at least 11,000 children have died in the Syrian war, according to a new report by the Oxford Research Group, and more than a million have fled their country. Millions more are displaced inside Syria. Both crises have had a tremendous toll on children and families. Australia is among the wealthiest countries in the world with a GDP of more $US67,000 - more than 10 times that of Jordan. Yet we are cutting aid - currently 0.37 per cent of Gross National Income compared to the United Kingdom, which is on track to reach 0.7 per cent this year. Those cuts could affect Australia's ability to meet the needs of children and families when disasters strike. It is possible there will be further cuts over and above the $4.5 billion cut already announced. With the next federal election several years away, in some ways it would be an easy decision to make. However, the best Christmas present we can give this year isn't wrapped and placed under a Christmas tree. It is reaffirming to thousands of Syrian refugees, to the Filipinos who have lost their homes, livelihoods and loved ones and to other vulnerable children and families around the world that Australia will stand beside them and continue to be worthy of the title of the world's most generous people. Paul Ronalds is CEO of Save the Children Australia. Donate to The Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal on 1800 76 00 11 or go to www.savethechildren.org.au/syria