Both sides feel inspired by each other after unusual encounter in refugee home in Zaatari for “long night of refugees”.
Fardous Awad, a 47 year old Syrian refugee, who came to Jordan in 2013 along with her family, talked to the EU Ambassador to Jordan about her life in the camp during the visit to her house in the camp.
No diplomat ever did this in the over ten years of Zaatari refugee camp. No Ambassador ever spent a night there, sleeping in a creaking bed in a freezing metal container instead of a comfortable king-sized bed in the spacious bedroom of a fine residence. No Ambassador had to walk across a dusty space from the container similar to the ones inhabited by refugees to a shared washroom.
Maria Hadjitheodosiou, EU Ambassador to Jordan, did just that in Zaatari Refugee Camp, temporary home to under 80,000 refugees from Syria. Following the motto “Long night of refugees”, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, had arranged an intimate encounter with a refugee family over dinner and breakfast as well as a night walk through the camp for her and leading journalist Dana Sharayri, Head of Roya TV’s English service.
The “long night” stands for the uncertainty that any woman, man or child forced to flee goes through: Where shall I go, how will my life look like there, how will I make a living, will I ever see my home again? The “long night” in Jordan stands also for the uncertainty about solutions. The few resettlement places for the most vulnerable refugees aside, there is no durable solution in sight for most of the country’s refugees as the most desired long-term solution, voluntary return, will require safe and dignified conditions inside Syria.
UNHCR organized the “long night of refugees” to allow the visitors to deepen their understanding of life in a packed and rusting metal container called “caravan” in Zaatari. “I don’t know what to expect”, EU Ambassador Hadjitheodosiou, confided to the others when climbing into the UNHCR vehicle to head to the camp on a dry May evening.
After mingling among refugees in the market streets of Zaatari, where you can rent a wedding dress, buy vegetables or have your phone repaired, the visitors had dinner with two separate families. Journalist Dana was invited by Amneh Hassan Khursan, also known as Umm Ali. When she fled to Jordan in 2014, the 49-year-old was still accompanied by her husband. It took them and their three children 28 long days to get out of Syria and to safety. At night, they were freezing.
“As I did not have a blanket, I was holding my little children tight to keep them warm”, Umm Ali recalls.
As her husband died of a heart attack later, Umm Ali, formerly a housewife in Syria, decided to reinvent herself as a community mobilizer for the NGO Oxfam. She raises awareness among the community about recyclable garbage and the need to separate certain types of waste. “I work because I want my children to complete their education”, she told Dana.
Umm Ali’s daughters share her mother’s dream despite the limited opportunities for high school graduates. Most universities charge unaffordable tuition fees to foreigners, and scholarships are scarce which makes it challenging for some students to stay motivated in school. “Whatever people say about after school,” says 14-year-old Zamzam, “I am going to finish my education.” She is determined to become a detective. Having spent most of her life in this refugee camp, she wants to break out of the pattern she sees every day: “One day, I want to take care of people, rather than have others to take care of me.”
Ambassador Hadjitheodosiou, too, heard about the hopes and challenges when she had dinner with Hisham Srahan (54), his wife, children and grandchildren in their containers. They had fled to Jordan ten years ago. A former owner of several sweet shops in Syria, Hisham now runs a grocery store in the camp. Their son Hussein (27), a father of three by now, uses his work permit to earn some money on nearby farms.
Both visitors spent the night in UNHCR-provided containers while stray dogs kept barking. In the early morning, they had breakfast with “their” refugee families. Later, UNHCR asked both sides what they took away from the unique encounter. “For a while”, Hisham said, “we thought we were forgotten, but after the visit of the Ambassador, we felt that refugees still had the attention of the international community”. The Ambassador admitted that it had been “a very emotional experience” to be hosted by “very brave, very dignified” people: “They are not forgotten!”
Dana Sharayri, the journalist, found it “eye-opening: Working as a journalist, it has always been about figures, donors, costs. Now, they are just people for me”, she said. “I’ve been to Zaatari before, but this time, I saw faces”, she added. Ambassador Hadjitheodosiou also gained new insights: “I learned from refugees last night and this morning, how important resilience is, and how important it is for them that we are there for them – caring.”
The journalist had a similar experience in the family she visited: “They have their every-day struggles, and yet, they are still very strong and very determined on their dreams.”
Maria Hadjitheodosiou even took away a message from her encounters: “I want to share with everybody that we need to make sure that these people do not lose the focus on their families, on educating their children. It is part of our responsibility as international community to keep this hope alive.”
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