LONDON: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met children at a refugee camp in Jordan on Wednesday on the first day of their visit to the kingdom.

Prince Harry and Meghan were invited to visit the country by Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who met them after they arrived in Amman.

The couple visited the Zaatari refugee camp, where they joined children to play football, and take part in art and music sessions.

Their visit aims to highlight efforts to support vulnerable communities affected by conflict and displacement, the BBC reported.

The couple started their visit with a meeting at the WHO offices with officials from UN agencies and diplomats.

They also visited young Palestinians wounded in Gaza who are receiving treatment in hospital in the Jordanian capital.

Zaatari camp is home to more than 80,000 Syrian refugees who fled the 14-year conflict in their home country to seek refuge in Jordan.

Harry and Meghan toured a youth center at the camp run by social development NGO Questscope.

Philip Hall, British ambassador to Jordan, thanked the Sussexes for traveling to the Middle East.

“Your visit, your support, your appreciation of the efforts that the United Nations, including, of course, the World Health Organization, the government of Jordan and others, are making here is enormously appreciated,” Hall said.

The visit follows an announcement in September by Prince Harry’s Archewell Foundation that it would donate $200,000 to WHO to help with medical evacuations from Gaza to Jordan. 

Another $150,000 was given to Save the Children for its work in Gaza and $150,000 to the Center of Blast Injury Studies to help develop prostheses for children injured in war.

The couple stepped back from senior roles with the British royal family in 2020 and moved to California.