Activities in Host Communities

JEN is improving community hygiene through its repair of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities and by providing personal hygiene teaching sessions. We distributed information booklets and hygiene kits to pupils to allow them to safely practice hygienic habits.

This picture shows the pupils happily receiving their information booklets and hygiene kits.

 

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The educational crisis caused by the crisis in Syria

Jordan, in the Middle East, is a small country (92,300 km2)) in area, which is almost as large as Hokkaido (83,424km2) in Japan. Jordan is a non-oil-producing country influenced by changing fuel or food prices abroad. Being poor in water resources and having no conspicuous means to acquire foreign money, the structure of the state is fragile both socially and economically.

Surrounded by Israel in the west, Iraq in the East, Saudi Arabia in the south and Syria in the north, the state is apt to be influenced by the security situations in its neighboring countries. Jordan has admitted refugees from Palestina and Iraq. The inflow of Palestinian refugees began after the Six-Day War and now it is said that two thirds of the whole population of about 7.5million are residents of Palestinian descendants.

In addition, the crisis in Syria which occurred in 2011 forced a great number of Syrian refugees to rush into the state. It is said that Jordan has admitted about 1.4 million people out of 4.3 million refugees and 630 thousand people have been registered and acknowledged by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These refugees account for about 19% of the whole population in Jordan.

The Jordanian government suffers for the recovery of business and　cutbacks of financial deficit, but on the other hand, spends a quarter of its state budget on refugee support. Consequently, the state has been driven into a severe financial condition by admitting the rapidly increasing Syrian refugees.

It is not well known that over 80% of Syrian refugees are living in the general society called ‘host community ’which is outside of the refugee camps. Many of them are living in urban areas.

The government of Jordan offers an educational opportunity to the children of those Syrian refugees who are registered and acknowledged as refugees. The number of Syrian refugee pupils who entered public school in Jordan in 2015 is 143,500, which is an increase by 60% from the previous year. The government is planning to admit 50,000 more Syrian refugee pupils in 2016. It is said that half of the 1.4 million Syrian refugees in Jordan are children and it is thought that there will be the extended number of Syrian refugee children in public schools in the country.

The opportunity of education in Jordan is important for the Syrian people to manage the reconstruction of their home country when the crisis in Syria comes to an end and they return home. However, due to the increase of Syrian refugee pupils, public schools in Jordan admitting refugees will suffer from insufficiency of infrastructure and teachers, and the decline in quality of education and/or violence in schools will be a serious problem. In order to admit Syrian refugee pupils, almost 100 public schools (about 3 % of all schools) have introduced two-shift system. It is difficult for the Jordanian government, which is already in a severe financial condition, to invest money to improve the infrastructure of schools or to reduce the burden on teachers, and therefore public schools have no choice but to shoulder a heavy burden. In nearly all schools which introduced the two-shift system, Jordanian pupils are taught in the morning and Syrian pupils in the afternoon.

【In the classroom of first grade of elementary school, 3 or 4 children share a desk for two children】

【The pupils of the school take up all the space on the floor】

Donating countries, cooperating with the Jordan government, worked out a supporting policy to abolish the two-shift system and enable Syrian pupils to go to morning school by the year of 2019. The aim is to ensure Syrian pupils educational opportunities to prevent a “Lost Generation” caused by the Syrian crisis, while reducing the burden on public schools in Jordan.

In order to avoid the educational crisis of Syrian refugees living in the host community, it is also necessary to support people in the country admitting refugees.
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To establish a sanitary life

Do you remember that you learned how to wash your hands and clean your room as a child?
Maybe most Japanese people do not realize that those acts protect you from diseases and take root in sanitary life.

In some parts of the world, it is rare to wash your hands after using the toilet and to clean the bathroom like Japanese customs.

In the region where refugees live, diseases are spread by trifle things because of dense population in an unsanitary area.  It is unthinkable in Japan.

To prevent the spread of diseases and lead sanitary life, JEN is focusing on hygiene education program in refugee camps and the elementary schools.
JEN supports pupils gain hygiene habits and mobilise the knowledge to their family in cooperation with the elementary schools.

[Pupils present a play of sanitary life which is a part of the hygiene education program]

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Ensuring the children’s safe –a project of education opportunities

These children are trying to create their own cosy space:  an effort to improve their living environment in the Za’atari Refugee Camp. In the camp, there is no space to play for the children, and they are hanging around a busy road side and a construction space with heavy equipment, where safety cannot be guaranteed.You can see more details of the improvements in JEN’s newsletter.

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To Take Part in Refugee Camp Support

Since the beginning of November, we have become the member of JEN and have been working in Za’atari refugee camp as field assistants. At first, we were shocked by restrictions on water usage and minimal environmental hygiene. Even now, we learn a lot of things every day.

Our main job is to secure appropriate environmental hygiene by improving access to the water sanitary facility. We monitor water distribution situation every day and keep our eyes on to make sure that each person could receive 35 litters of clean water.

Another important work is to monitor and retain the public water sanitary facility. Infrastructure of Za’atari refugee camp is improving gradually. We are retaining this by cooperating with the members of the community. Right now is a transitional period for public water sanitary facility to be set up to each home; however, this is because public facilities are still in use, it is necessary to maintain the good condition.

Furthermore, to prevent the spread of disease in the camp as the environmental hygiene is low compare to its high density of the population, we are delivering hygiene promotion message aiming to strengthen people’s knowledge. We make house-to-house visits, do group sessions and do hygiene promotion events in some cases. We do cleaning activities with the members of the community every month. These activities are good opportunities to promote the whole camp community to make an effort to create healthy environment by themselves. Believing that they will gain power to become independent in the future, JEN recommend participation of activities. These activities include those of water and health committee which retain facilities and community hygiene promoter who provide hygiene promotion activities.

<The look of hygiene promotion activity associated with World Toiled Day>

Currently, we are expecting that flood caused by heavy rain and snow in winter will occur again from our past experiences so, we are discussing about the contingency plan. In the meantime, to make people recognize that all the residents in the camp have responsibilities to their own households, we are sending message to call attention to each households.

Recently, we heard difficulty of using freezingly cold water from the people in the area. We want to respond to their needs in the field by setting work priorities and working with related organizations as a team.

Looking back over the past three years, the camp seems to have become more stabilized, but nobody knows how long their life in the camp will be. We want to work hard to create a better environment for them.

We want to implement ‘Lessons learnt’ from our past experiences to support them efficiently.

Maja & Fares

<Maja and children>

<Fares monitoring water sanitary facility>

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