Spreading the hygiene awareness from students to their family through hygiene materials

JEN conducted hygiene promotion in 10 schools in Mafraq and Irbid. In this activity, teachers trained by JEN gave lessons to students by using JEN original hygiene materials.

[Hygiene lesson with JEN hygiene materials conducted in Alnahtha primary school]

The hygiene booklet for lower grades is based on a story with interesting games that two children, Sarah and Ahmed, learn hygiene issues.  It was created by JEN staffs’ hope that this booklet would be not only text book for hygiene lesson but also the tool for children to learn hygiene with fun.

We’ve got very interesting stories regarding this booklet when we visited schools for monitoring after hygiene promotions. The headmistress of Hay Aldalaa primary school told us that the play imitating Sarah and Ahmed is going around students. One girl student learned all the contents of the booklet by heart and proudly explained it to us.

We also heard that children receiving the booklets read it to their brothers and sisters. In addition, one student said, ‘I teach my father and mother to wash their hands’.

[Boy student in Omar bin Khatab primary school who told us that he read the story to his brothers]

JEN’s hygiene promotions were conducted in schools and targeted school children, but at the same time we expect that in this way the effect spills over into families such as parents and siblings and contributes to the improvement of community hygiene environment.

This project is being executed thanks to the support of Japan Platform, all our members and contributors.

Another large camp “Azraq” for Syrian refugee will be newly opening soon

According to UNHCR total registered population for Zaatari reached 200 thousands and number of refugees coming to Jordan might continue to increase as domestic situation of Syrian is difficult to assume.

To respond the situation UNHCR official declared to open new camp in Azraq, the city close to Jordan/ Saudi border and we made site visit a few days ago.

The new camp is located middle of desert and procure water resource, include drinking water is one of the biggest challenge.

Now, JEN is consulting with other international organizations to grasp needs of people and find possible support for people.

 

Three stories from school hygiene promotion ～Butterflies, Play and a Candy～

As we started the hygiene promotion for the selected schools, which accepted the Syrian refugee students, and had problems such as the capacity of latrines and hygiene awareness; We began the teachers’ training sessions, followed by students’ sessions and hygiene kits distribution.

Upon our visit to conduct the students’ session in Alhamraa Secondary School for
girls in Almafraq province, the teacher named Nisreen who held the students’ session prepared four groups of 16-year-old girls, each group had their own name “butterflies, flowers, seagulls and Youth of the Future”. The teacher  start to handed them papers with
different colors after she finished conducting the session, each group had a task to be accomplished, they wrote on pieces of papers different diseases types (definition, symptoms, methods of transmission and prophylaxis) inspired from our secondary hygiene promotion booklet. The result was an interesting collage that can be used in the school passages and it can be good brief information for all people together with our distributed posters. One girl of them said “My ambition now is to be a model in increasing awareness in water conservation and health care especially hygiene care in my home and in my school”.

“To attract the young students attention and to get the maximum benefit of hygiene
awareness” teacher Abdulla proclaim in the followed school visit Albowyada primary school for boys, the teacher prepared an interesting play held by two students. This play was based on our hygiene primary booklet,which is the story about Sarah and Ahmed.

“There is no soap in my school but from now on I have my own soap and I’m going to use it after the toilet and before eating”. A 10-year-old child who received hygiene kits from JEN proclaims so and he was so happy that he offered a candy to express how thankful he was.

It is nice to spread the spirit of hygiene, cooperation, joy and happiness in these schools.

We are so grateful for the support of Japan Platform and Contributors and for all
JEN supporters.

Salwa Aljama
Program assistant

A visit to Jordanian/Syrian border

Since January 2012, Jordan has become home for more than 300,000 Syrian refugees who escape the civil war in their country. Jaber, a town located 80 km northern of Amman, is one of the busiest crossing points used by the Syrians to enter the Kingdom. Last week I had a chance to visit refugee collection point in Jaber managed by the Jordanian military.

“The Syrian refugees enter Jordan through 45 crossing points along the 378-kilometre border. And we receive around 2,000 to 3,000 people each day,” the Commander of Jordanian Border Security Forces, Brigadier Hussein R.Al-Zyoud explained. “Many Syrians arrive in Jordan with various injuries, including bullet wounds. We evacuate the injured people by ambulances to the nearby public hospital”, he added and admitted that the number of ambulances operated in the border is not sufficient to handle many injured Syrians.

A military official said he sometimes heard heavy artillery and gun shots in Naseeb, a town near Jordanian border.   Most Syrians used to cross the border during night time. As violence intensified in the Syria’s southern province, now people come at all hours of
the day.

Here at the frontier, newly arrived Syrians are given medical assistance, food, blanket and clothing operated by the military. That evening I saw around 250 exhausted Syrians sat in the cold under an opened tent, waiting for hours to be transferred to the nearby Zaatari
desert camp that already houses more than 100,000 people.

A mother was helping her 4-year-old daughter to put on her new purple boots and a jacket from JEN. Their clothes dusty and wrinkled after fleeing with what little they could carry. A few hours earlier, she, along with her five children, had made their way from the embattled Damascus to the southern province of Daraa. “Our home was destroyed. We fled the city to Daraa. Then we walked for 1.5 hour until we arrive at Jordanian border”, said the woman.

JEN has prepared and dispatched clothing packages for around 1,500 new arrivals at the border. Thanks to UNIQLO, Felissimo and JICA for supporting our humanitarian mission for the Syrian refugees in Jordan.

 

The first step for the improvement of WASH environment by refugees

Though the daylight is getting stronger day by day, the coldness in the night and morning is still severe in Zaatari camp standing on the middle of desert that extreme temperature difference.

It is getting more vital issue to promote the proper use of water and hygiene (WASH) facilities, to improve its maintenance, and change refugees’ consciousness on hygiene and health because the risk of spread of water related diseases will be higher in the hot weather.

As we introduced JEN’s activities in Zaatari refugee camp here on this blog, we support Syrian refugee to establish “WASH committee” in each module of the camp aiming to improve their water and hygiene environment. Under the WASH committee of each module, there are 12 WASH sub-committees by blocks and they work through improving the water and hygiene environment of the each block.

Today, we share how those sub-committee’s meetings are.

A WASH sub-committee has 12 members (6 males and 6 females) as the representatives of water-related issues in each block and they lead community people to use WASH facilities clean and improve their hygiene consciousness. There are some active communities where
community-volunteers clean their WASH facilities by themselves or promoting morals on common use facilities.

Currently, there are WASH committees established in 4 modules and members are 24 representatives of 12 WASH sub-committees.
They discuss on the situation and issues of water and hygiene, share activities of each module, and exchange new idea for improvement of their environment.

We expect that those activities done by WASH committees and WASH sub-committees will strengthen community in the camp and motivate refugees to participate the
activities of their environment improvements.