Happy new year from a newcomer in Za’atari refugee camp!

After managing JEN’s Haiti Program for 3 years, I arrived in Amman on December 9th to work as the Program Officer of “JEN Syrian Refugee Assistance Project in Jordan.” This new assignment is still about WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) but doesn’t regard access to drinkable water anymore. This time my task is to ensure accessibility to clean and functional WASH facilities in which toilets, showers, sink and laundry areas must be available to the refugees at any time.

With around 110,000 people living in the camp at the beginning of 2014, Za’atari refugee camp has the population of a decent town in a much smaller area! This density in addition to the fact that the refugees have escaped a war zone and lost everything makes the task nowhere near easy.

Like any small town in any country, the camp also hosts a tiny minority of people who neglects or even properly vandalize the common public services unfortunately.

Walking around the camp from a WASH facility to another on a daily basis I am discovering and understanding a bit more about this community of Syrian refugees.

Working for the first time in a refugee camp I have to admit I had no real idea of how “life” could be in Za’atari…

And guess what?

It is actually like in any other town! Children playing around, sadness, disease and death in some household; happiness, hope and birth in others! To start the New Year with good news, let me show you the house a refugee proudly showed me a few days ago!

Though it is not complete outside, the entrance of the house is simply gorgeous!

The owner, the gentleman on the right, has borrowed money and spent around 600,000 JPY to buy 3 extra caravans to add to the one he and his family was entitled to, and to furnish and decorate the property.

My favorite “touch”? The indoor fountain!

When I asked the proud owner of this place if his motivation to create such a nice place was a decision of staying and living in Za’atari camp long, he answered: “Well, there is a civil war in my country; nobody knows how long it will last… In the meantime life goes on! I always wanted the best for my family and here is what I can offer best to my family now!”

Very few families in Za’atari refugee camp have people they can borrow such amount of money from and it is not everybody who has the energy and the creativity like this man have.

But to be honest I never imagined it would exist and that I would meet one on the very first day of 2014 wishing me a happy New Year!

Romain Briey
Zaatari Camp Program Officer

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