An encounter with a family in Zaatari camp

The other day, I had an opportunity to visit a family in Zaatari camp as part of our assistance for vulnerable households. The family consists of an elderly couple and their four daughters. The father has physical disability and suffers from mental stress so that he is not able to work and earn income. The four daughters are all grown up but one girl’s legs are paralyzed and cannot walk on her own. [Zaatari street]

When I visited them and began our conversation, at first the family members seemed a bit nervous and were not very talkative. But at some turn of the conversation, I found that the paralyzed girl does knitting as a hobby. The young lady refused shyly with a small smile at our requests to show her pieces, but after several attempts from our side, she brought out her work. And to our surprise, her work was beautiful!

[Zaatari blanket]

 “Wow! Such beautiful colors. I can’t believe this is all handmade!” I was simply astonished and impressed by the quality of her knitting, and gradually the atmosphere in the house became more friendly and relaxed. Gaining some confidence, she showed some pictures she painted as well. The next moment I realized the other three sisters and the mother were smiling with pride.

This family is not able to lead an economically satisfying life. The camp is not a friendly place for a lady with disability to live in. But despite this, I believe it means a lot that she has something she likes doing, and does it well too, and by doing that makes her and her family happy.

JEN will continue to assist those people going through hardships, and seeking for a better life.

[Zaatari staff meeting]

 

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JEN will be there for the most vulnerable households to keep providing the support they need.

【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】

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Handmade Mattress and cushion covers

One of JEN’s activities in Za’atari camp is to establish Women Community Support Groups to encourage women in vulnerable family to support their family and another vulnerable family.

During September to November, women participated in the activity created beautiful mattress and cushion covers, total 477 sets (one mattress cover and two cushion covers). In November, the participants gave the mattress and cushion covers for more vulnerable families as a gift.  We JEN support the purchasing of materials and facilitate the activity, but try to leave the activity to the voluntarism of participants.

We have received many feedbacks from both of the participants and the vulnerable families which received items..

Let’s start from comments of participants.

Um Nadim , a mother of 3 children said this was the first time to join volunteer group and to help other families and she wanted to join the next activity.

Huda works with other NGO, but participated in our activity during a break. She said, “I feel that I have become a strong and productive woman when I helped vulnerable families in my community.”

Um Shakeb said, “I used my sewing machine to make mattress and cushion covers at my home. It was tiring, but the joy that I felt during the distribution made me forget everything.”

Aisha (61), widow, lives alone and has physical disability. She was surprised when the participants brought the covers and she  cried.

Hanan (30), widow mother with 5 children, said this helped her to save around 30 JD especially as she can’t work outside, leaving her children at home

We believe that we will understand the meaning of the life by supporting someone in our community even if it is very small thing.

JEN Livelihood Team
Ibtihal Harahsha

 [Tattered mattress cover. In the camp, this is used for bed.]

[Cutting fabrics with chatting]

 [Sewing fabrics. Participants are teaching each other.]

 [Participants are giving covers to the elderly woman and helping to put the cover on.]

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JEN will be there for the most vulnerable households to keep providing the support they need.

【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】

Winter Has Come Around

In Jordan, you can enjoy the seasonal tradition as in Japan. Typical in the desert region, the temperature sharply goes down at the dawn and night, but except that, it’s much alike in Japan, slightly warmer.

The biggest difference is the rainy season. While it rains a lot between spring and summer in Japan, the rainy season in Jordan lasts a few months from the late autumn through winter, during which we receive the annual rainfall.

The temperature has dropped down slower than last year, which eases the daily life but concerns the local people for the delayed rainy season. In mid-November, responding to the announcement of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the prayer for the rainfall was offered during the Salat ul Jummaregular Friday prayers, at the nationwide mosques. That prayer is the tradition passed over since the era of the prophet Mohammed, and probably thanks to that, it started to rain since the late November.

The winter preparation has started in Za’atari refugee camp since October to reduce the impact of the upcoming foul weather. This camp is located on the claystone, where the rainfalls don’t seep into the soil but stay on the surface, so the refugees living in the lower area of the camp may suffer the floods above the floor level and be forced to evacuate in a worse case. Moreover, the snowfall and storm are forecast from now.

【The refugee camp in the winter, 2016 to 2017】

To reduce the damage as much as possible with benefit of the past experiences, each sector has a discussion on the prevention and emergency plan. As a part of that, they’ve started to distribute the gas vouchers, blankets and foods, as well as some cash to purchase the winter clothes for children.

JEN, as a member organization in charge of water sanitation network, takes a lesson from the previous year’s calamity and plans to transfer the public water storages and to install temporary supply tanks, so that the public sanitation services, both waterworks and sewerage, will be operated smoothly as usual. In order to prevent the floods due to the heavy rain, we’ve unchoked the blocked roadside gutters and constructed new ones if necessary, as well as encouraging the residents to take a precaution themselves and instructing them on how to cope with the foul weather.

The urgent task is to secure the safety of the construction sites of waterworks and sewerage network undertaken at the refugee camp. We pay a constant attention to the safety of the construction sites as the excavation for the sewerage goes down as deep as 5 to 6 meters. The rainfalls make it difficult to recognize the excavation on the ground, which may cause cars and pedestrians to drop into it by mistake. We need to take a preventive action together with our constructors, and make sure that the excavated earth won’t be in the way of the transportation of the water supply and sewerage trucks.

There’s no way to escape from natural disasters, but we can prepare and take preventive measures to reduce the damages, with benefit of our past experiences and hand in hand with the local authority.

【Removing a part of the pavement to make stagnant water flow from the gutter in 9th district of Zaatari camp】

 

The Visitor From Japan (Project Monitoring)

JEN’s activities are operated by the partnership with UNICEF and Japan Platform (referred to as “JPF”), as well as the donation of our supporters.

From 23rd to 25th of October, two members of JPF head office in Tokyo visited Jordan. For 2 days, they monitored the consequences of JEN’s activities which were carried out from 2016 to April in 2017. For last 12 months, we’d engaged ourselves in accepting Syrian refugees, maintaining the water sanitation such as overage toilettes and washing basins at schools in the host communities, and enlightening young students on the hygiene.

The JPF inspectors also monitored the current state of facilities of several schools after our support was completed. Some schools keep working on the maintenance of the quality, others not, and the self-sufficient maintenance of school sanitation is an urgent issue at boys’ schools in Jordan. Even though it looked unhygienic to our eyes, the inspectors were impressed with our efforts and the dramatic improvement on the awareness and attitude of students toward the hygiene.
 
【An example of mal-maintained facilities】

In Jordan, every public school is obliged to meet the standard of maintenance and management of sanitation facilities. Even those schools below the standard are struggling to achieve their goals, believing they’re heading for the improvement bit by bit. We’re so pleased that JPF has recognized that.
 
【JPF monitoring】

It can be said that the quality of maintenance and management of sanitation varies in the degree of the devotion from school masters and teachers. Even if not being up to the standard yet, it’s important to keep working on it. That is why JEN will continue to visit schools of our previous activities, and carry out a post-activity monitoring along with having conversations with local teachers.

Global Handwashing Day event at a school in Amman

On 30th October, we held an event for Global Handwashing Day (15th October) in AlBaselia elementary school in Amman, upon request from UNICEF. In Jordan, UNICEF is carrying out water and hygiene facility improvement project, with the support of Japanese government. This event took place as part of the  completion ceremony of water supply network project held in the school’s community.

AlBaselia elementary school is in desert area of Al Jeezah DS Division which is one of the nine regions that constitute Amman prefecture. With the completion of water supply network, local people are now able to use water for daily life without major problems. There are 180 students in this school. Students from schools of nearby communities who can now use water were invited to this event as well, making the total to 300 students. In addition, 50 people from local community participated.

Almost all of the participants wore a traditional Arabian red and white scarf, with a long shirt dress called Dishdasha, and welcomed the Ambassador of Japan and Representative of UNICEF in Jordan.

Even in Amman, the capital of Jordan, there are many schools with poor water  facilities like AlBaselia elementary school. There are no Syrian refugees in this school, but in schools where water usage is restricted, it becomes a problem when accepting Syrian refugees.

Due to the unstable economic situation, it is difficult for the government of Jordan to maintain infrastructure by themselves. JEN and other organizations carry out support activities to stabilize water supply in Jordan, and contribute to social unity between Jordanians and Syrian refugees.

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JEN will be there for the most vulnerable households to keep providing the support they need.

【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】

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