ZA’ ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan, August 25 (IPS) – “I think I’m making a difference. I’m really helping,” Hanadi told me as she reflected on her work in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.
She is teaching computer skills to a class of Syrian children aged 11 to 16. The students were animated by Hanadi’s lessons and fascinated as she taught them some of the basics.
“I taught them enough to get started,” she said.
I first met Hanadi in 2013 – eight months after the Za’atari camp opened to a huge wave of refugees from across the border in Syria. She is 17 years old and is studying at a similar vocational center in the camp supported by UNICEF.
She had arrived in Za’atari three months ago, having run away with her family and whatever they could bring from their home near Damascus. Once there, she told me of her relief that she could go back to school and look forward to continuing her studies.
Fast forward almost a decade, and it is inspiring to see how Hanadi has gone from student to teacher. Like so many of her peers, Hanadi had experienced things in her childhood that no one else had to go through. But despite the huge challenges, she persevered and is now devoting her life to creating a better future for the next generation.
Unlike many youths in the camp, who struggled to find meaningful opportunities by leaving high school, Hanadi completed her education, went to college, and earned a degree.
Now, she’s married to Tariq, has two beautiful children, and is encouraging young Syrians to develop the practical skills they need to help them reach their full potential.
However, fleeing war and a decade in a refugee camp for 80,000 people certainly came at a cost. Hanadi told me in 2013, with tears in her eyes. That didn’t happen, and her stepchildren have never lived in a home, let alone set foot in the family home.
A life in limbo
There was some shade from the intense midday sun as we approached the home of Abu Kareem, Hanadi’s father. Camp looks like it did during that time first yearas families move out of tents into large containers, and school compounds spring up, run by the Department of Education with support from UNICEF.
Gone are the lines at water dispensers, where women and children used to carry heavy jerrycans in the harsh heat of the day. Instead, a clean and environmentally friendly water and sanitation system has completely replaced the need for water trucks that used to cause dust storms as they navigated the narrow desert roads through the camp. Now, water flows from the faucet into Abu Kareem’s kitchen.
The services provided to children and young people, ranging from academic support to vocational and sports training, are today largely self-administered by Syrians, providing much-needed income and ensuring sustainable functioning. more sustainable, community-led.
This is important because funding has fallen amid a host of global crises vying for the world’s attention.
Tanya Chapuisat, UNICEF Representative in Jordan, said: “We are dealing with young people who have grown up in the traumas of war and are now transitioning to adulthood at a very uncertain time when the opportunity to live a life is very uncertain. society seems limited,” Tanya Chapuisat, UNICEF Representative in Jordan, told me.
“In the rush to provide lifesaving services to refugees fleeing the border ten years ago, I am not sure any UNICEF colleague would have imagined that we would have be here a decade later.”
This uncertainty is clearly weighing heavily on Abu Kareem’s mind. His family converted their home, watering the yard to create some welcoming green space and expanding the structure as the family has grown over time.
It’s impressively casual, as always. But the effect on his family from living in prison is a constant concern.
“Our children just live in the camp,” he said. “It’s a bigger world out there, they don’t know how it works.” Life outside the perimeter of the camp remains a distant dream.
Keep floating
A five-minute drive away, on the edge of the camp, we met Abu Thaer, who was finishing his shift at one of Za’atari’s schools. We first met when the school – the third school in the camp – opened in 2013. Abu Thaer has played an important role in its development, with about 2,200 children currently taking classes. learn.
His daughter, Omaima, 21 years old, attended the school. Like Hanadi, she is an inspiration to other young people in the camp. Omaima is the only Syrian refugee studying at a nearby university’s Faculty of Law, and her sole focus right now is on making sure her studies are successful.
“I don’t even have time to make friends. The college days, I was so tired, I couldn’t do anything else,” said Omaima. She received a scholarship to help her transition to higher education, although Abu Thaer continued to do what he could to feed his five children.
“I want to keep my family afloat. I wanted to give the kids a head start in life,” he said. Over a delicious meal of Majboos (chicken and rice) at his family home, Abu Thaer reflects on a decade in the camp.
“We’re still safe and have adjusted to the circumstances and we’re grateful for that,” he said. “The kids have grown up in this facility and we don’t know what the future holds. That’s the most negative thing.”
The hospitality, generosity and warmth of Abu Kareem, Abu Thaer and their families – indeed of all I have ever met in Za’atari – never surprised me. But as the world’s eyes have turned to other emergencies, a generation of children in Za’atari are transitioning into adulthood and raising their own children on their own.
When I was in Romania and Ukraine a few weeks before, I couldn’t help but think of kids like Hanadi and Omaima. When another war forces children to seek asylum and survive their lives, we owe it to them to continue to provide them with the opportunities they need to survive and progress. Especially when a distant home is still unreachable, at least for now.
Toby Fricker is Head of Communications and Partnerships, UNICEF South Africa.
Source: UNICEF Blog
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