The meaning of Zaatari magazine; The Road

Delighted children receiving monthly magazine, “The Road”. The Road is a magazine published by residents of camp, with technical training and guidance provided by JEN.

Through the publishing project, the residents are reminded of the importance to not only wait for support but to create something and be proactive.

[Photo by Kenichi Tanaka]

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The Compost-Making Project

In the refugee camps where JEN works, adequate supply of water and a working sewage and garbage disposal system are essential in order to keep living spaces sanitary and preventing infection from spreading within the camp where the population density is high.

JEN is now struggling with the general problem of the improvement of water and sanitation as a control group of the water/sanitation fields in the 3～5th sections out of 12 areas in Zaatari refugee camp.

As a way to improve sanitation, JEN began experimenting with compost in early August in order to reduce household garbage. A family from each of these 3 areas where JEN is providing aid and support is taking part in this trial and learning about materials and methods most suited for making compost.

In order to create a compost bit, first one must hollow out the bottom of a trash can of family use, bury the can into the ground about 10 centimeters deep, put garbage or weed into it, and add water. Then, stir and expose them to air every day, and earth warms in the ground will eat and decompose them into compost in a few months. This is the first experience for these three families and they are practicing following the advice of JEN’s staff that visit once a week to monitor the progress.

A month has passed and differences among these families have been observed. Complaints of the smell and flies have been resolved by following the staff’s advice, and the refugees’ understanding about the condition such as where to set up the containers, what kind of material to put in, or the condition in stirring material are deepening gradually.

It is already the 3rd year since a man who is participating in this project from the 5th section, began to live in the refugee camp. He grows vegetables, edible herbs, flowers and the like in the lot of the camp, making the best use of his agricultural experience in a town in the south of Syria where he had lived before he moved to the camp.
He said that this project has greatly reduced the amount of garbage produced and added that he would continue composting and looks forward to using the compost in his vegetable garden in the lot.

Vegetation is sparse around Zaatari refugee camp situated in the desert, many of which are brownish due to he sand of the desert. We hope that his garden will create a small oasis in the minds of his neighbors.

Though this project is now at the testing stage, we are going to work so that this activity will spread and slowly but surely improve the livings conditions of the refugee camp.

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Support for the improvement of water sanitation

In June we reported that JEN completed a needs survey at over 3,681 schools all around Jordan. This report shows JEN’s activities after that.

Jordan’s local communities receiving refugees outside the refugees’ camps are called “host communities”. One of JEN’s internal groups, which supports Jordan’s host communities, analyzed the result of the above needs survey together with UNICEF and divided the country’s schools into four categories. In addition, the number of support targets this time had to be narrowed down to 113 from 1,200 schools with rapid support in need.

*1 In Jordan, UNICEF takes the lead in the support activities in the field of water sanitation. UNICEF aims at coordinating these activities with international and local NGOs through grasping which institution is doing what and where (both in refugees’ camps and in host communities). It also sets quality standards and shares them with the support institutions.
*2 The needs analysis is carried out in accordance with “Sphere Standards”, an international standard for support, and is adjusted to the situation of the recipient country. “Sphere Standards” is to be considered by all the support institutions conducting humanitarian assistance. The standards set out in the field of water sanitation include “How much water should be available for a student” and “How many toilets are in need for how many students”.

In the school selection, JEN sets certain conditions and checked if each school meets the conditions with the Ministry of Education and the Bureau of Education in the local governments. The conditions include “The school building is owned by the Ministry of Education”, “The number of students and the proportion of Syrian refugees”, “The school has the space for construction” and “No support overlap with other institutions”. It took as long as three to four weeks to obtain an official approval as the recipient school from the Ministry of Education.

Through the process like this, JEN is now preceding the repair and construction of water sanitation facilities in the officially approved 97 schools in Jordan’s 11 governorates. Since it was during summer vacation and students were absent from school, JEN has completed the repair of water sanitation facilities in nearly 60 schools, and has finished 70% of new toilet constructions.

It seems that in Jordan’s public schools, toilets for girls and boys are painted in bright purple and blue, respectively.

In Jordan, guardians have a strong tendency not to let their children organize the water sanitation facilities in the schools. Many students, girls in particular but some boys as well, never use school toilets because they are not clean enough. A lack of organization results in even dirtier toilets. Moreover, in some schools, teachers decide, by their own discretion, that certain number of toilets and faucets are unnecessary and lock them so as not to be used by the students. The rights of the students are not sufficiently secured.

Reflecting this situation, from next September, when the new semester starts, JEN’s sanitation promotion staffs will start sanitation education activities in the country’s 113 schools, including the above-mentioned 97 schools. This activity aims to continuously improve the sanitary environment for schools and students. It will also instruct teachers, students, and guardians on the importance of implementing proper sanitation habits and students’ right to clean water, and the awareness of maintaining clean sanitation facilities and preserving water.

This activity is carried out thanks to the cooperation of UNICEF as well as JEN’s supporters.

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Water distribution and discharge

About 80,000 Syrian refugees live in the space of less than six square kilometers, the Zaatari refugee camp.

If you just see the number of population density, there seems to be the more populated cities in the rest of the world. But you may find it difficult to simply compare the housing density when you think about the fact that all the buildings have gotten only one floor in this camp.

↑The street ‘Champs-Elysees’. A busy market with full of people for shopping.

The problem is not only high housing density but also that there are no water supply and sewage systems.
Water is supplied to the camp by rullies, and then stored in the public water tanks in everywhere in the camp, which are open for public. Refugees transfer water from these tanks to their buckets and polyethylene-tanks, and then bring them to their houses.

↑A queue waiting for water distribution.

Also, since there are no sewage water systems, domestic wastewater has been drained out of the houses without any treatment.

↑Disposed domestic wastewater disposed from the houses.

In order to solve these problems, JEN has been trying to build water supply and sewage systems with the other supporting organizations. It is clear that the refugees’ everyday life will be more convenient by building those systems. In addition, it will make a lot of differences for their life, such as:

1.to reduce their workloads to go and get water.
2.to enable to run water distribution by rullies with the lower cost by that the running cost covers only the system maintenance. Therefore, the systems will continuously work even after the supporting scale is reduced in the future.
3.to increase safety level for inhabitants –especially those who live in narrow streets– by reducing a risk of a danger caused by large rullies.
4.to reduce a noise by rullies
5.to improve of hygiene environment (such as the prevention of diseases, bad smell as well as the better landscape) by that domestic wastewater is no longer exposing on the road surfaces.

It has been three years since the camp was established. Because there is no prospect that the situation around Syria will be stable in the near future, supports from the mid and long terms point of view are essential. The development of water infrastructure is one of these efforts.

Such big projects require a huge amount of resources in terms of planning, technique and finance. While cooperating with each post and asking them for support, we have been doing everything we can do to help Syrian refugees improve their living conditions, though the steps are little by little.

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Imagining Syria away

“I like only gardens in the camp. I don’t like caravans or this heat at all,” said one of my Syrian friends.
His talks later made me to believe that Syria has fertile soil. I tried googling “Syria”, looking for beautiful Syria, but it was only guns, tanks, destroyed towns and people stupefied with grief that came up. It was as if the word “Syria” itself shouldered all tragedies in them. Then, I googled “Syria towns”, still looking for an “original” Syria, but I just found a heap of rubble. All I can do is imagining in order to know how beautiful and magnificent Syria is, Syria shown by children’s paint and my friends talk.

[Children’s painting activity]

When I watch the north from the camp which is just 15km away, I can see the pale pink hazy horizon which is different from the view in Japan. That is the place. I wonder when they will be able to return to their loved place in peace and what I can do with them and learn from them by spending a spare moment here. I would like to note my idea as it has been about a month since I began my intern and today is just the end of Ramadan.
I join the projects for the magazine “Al Tariq”, which JEN publishes monthly with the refugees, and for the handicrafts in which women in the camp make using donated but damaged clothes. What I have thought through these activities for one month as the intern in JEN Jordan office is that I want to be a clown one way or another.

[Za-Atari monthly magazine “Al Tariq”]

The reason is because Syrian refugees in the camp seemed to enjoy when I used my poor Arabic, when we talked about Japan and Syria and did some activities together. It is my desire that they find something delightful here even a little bit during activities with me. So, I have thought how I can be a funny clown for them.
I saw magazine members willingly go to conduct an interview for articles in the next magazine as usual. Whenever I accompany them, even I don’t understand the Arabic,  I always find something new. I’m sharing the time with them, leaning from them and cheering them up. And at the same time, I want to suggest some small ideas that shall bring pleasures to them.

[Magazine members conducting interview]

I was suffering from the heat in the camp but I found that it was a bit comfortable when I go into a caravan, lay on an Arabic mat and feel the wind shaking the plants in gardens. With the wind fanning me, I can imagine Syria again a little bit easier. As I dream beautiful Syria, I will try my best to be a funny clown.

Intern in JEN Jordan office

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