ON THE pale-pink walls of Ahmed Rateb's rented apartment in the Jordanian capital of Amman, there are many picture hooks with nothing to show.
When he had to flee his home in the Syrian capital, Damascus, with wife Ghosoon and their two boys, Hamzeh and Laith (above and, inset, with friends), Rateb was planning to return to collect his family photographs. 
Then a barrel bomb exploded and his house, car, business, neighbours and some members of his extended family were all gone, as was anything that he would now want to hang on those picture hooks.
"The pictures of my country are now here," he said pointing to his head as he sits in a small apartment above a clothing sweat shop in Marka, a suburb now almost exclusively made up of Syrian refugees.
On paper, there are 600,000 registered Syrian refugees living in Jordan, but the Jordanian Government estimates the true number is now 1.4 million, making up almost 20 per cent of the kingdom's population. Most live rough on the streets, in makeshift shelters along the highways, in basements and over-priced spare rooms, or in camps.
Of the refugees that have registered with the United Nations refugee agency in Jordan, almost 80 per cent live outside the camps, in vulnerable situations, with little money or food, to eke out an existence any way they can.
It is these families, looking for somewhere - anywhere - to go, that Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week offered a lifeline to as he pledged Australia would resettle 12,000 refugees registered with the UNHCR.
Immigration officials based at the Australian embassy in Amman are already working on the plan, and this week they will be joined by other departmental colleagues from Dubai as they look to co-ordinate the massive resettlement program.
Priority is to be given to both Syrian and Iraqi families, particularly from persecuted minorities.
As part of the pledge, the Australian Government will also give $44 million to assist refugees remaining in camps.
For many in Jordan, the aid could not come soon enough, with refugee camps desperate for funds and bursting at the seams.
For families like the Ratebs, all they have are their dreams.The Australian Government expects the first refugee arrivals before Christmas.