Women refugees from Syria queue to register on arrival at the Za’atari camp in Jordan. 26 Jan 2013. Picture: Jane Garvan/DFID via WikiMedia Commons. Tara Abraham is the Executive Director of Glamour Magazine’s The Girl Project, which promotes education for girls around the world who are not in school due to war, poverty, child marriage, and gender-based violence. Ms. Abraham traveled to Jordan in January 2018, to the Za’atari and Azraq refugee camps, as a part of the UNICEF USA delegation. I recently had the chance to listen to her speak when she gave a talk through Harvard’s Alumni Global Women’s Empowerment group called, “Reflections on the Syrian Refugee Crisis.” It’s estimated that 1.4 million refugees have fled to Jordan since the Syrian war began. Ms. Abraham interviewed refugee girls at the camps about their daily lives, how they were affected by leaving Syria, and what educational opportunities were available to them. Za’atari Camp was the first refugee camp to be founded in Jordan. The number of buildings there can seem endless, for they stretch to the horizon as far as you can see. It is home to almost 80,000 people and is considered Jordan’s fourth largest city. However, Za’atari was not planned—as people leaving Syria crossed the border into Jordan, they stopped almost as soon as they entered safe territory. Za’atari camp sprang up where they stopped, just twelve miles from the border. Shelters were hastily built in clusters without any kind of planned infrastructure to support the community. Because of this, the camp faces logistical challenges when it comes to things like security and delivering water to the people who live there. Due to its close proximity to Syria, Ms. Abraham said the sounds of ammunition and explosions are audible within the camp; even though the refugees had escaped from the war, the sounds of battle still followed them. Along with the trauma of having left their homes in Syria, the people in the camp face practical challenges as well. For example, they only receive twenty-eight dollars per week for food, which is not nearly enough. Also, there are extremely few formal job opportunities for refugees in Jordan. Despite all of this, Ms. Abraham explained the resourcefulness and resilience of the community. To make ends meet, some refugees travel to Amman, a city in Jordan, to buy goods that they can then resell at a profit to others in the camp. Also, because Za’atari grew organically, Ms. Abraham said it felt more like ‘life’ than other camps she visited, which were planned. In Za’atari, people plant vegetable gardens between the jumble of shelters—life springs up here and there. There’s even a main market street, complete with barber shops and food carts, nicknamed the Champs-Elysees, after the famous street in Paris, France. According to statistics, families can spend an average of up to 10-18 years in the camp. In other words, an entire generation can grow up within the camp. For example, while Ms. Abraham was there, she met refugee children who were as old as 5 or 6 who had been born at Za’atari and knew no other life besides it. She described seeing girls and boys playing on the side of the road, just running around ‘being kids.’ It struck her as strangely carefree given the circumstances. UNICEF has set up Makani (“my space”) centers to provide some educational and recreational outlets for young girls and boys. At the centers, kids do things like compete in soccer games, paint, and play with building blocks. After a few days of being in the camp, Ms. Abraham noticed something unusual. She began to realize that she rarely saw any adolescent girls outside of their houses. As she explained it, once girls hit puberty, they began to be more exposed to the companionship of men and all of the real and perceived risks that come with that. The parents, seeing their daughters’ vulnerability, restrict the girls’ movements to keep them safe and protect their virtue. Parents don’t want older girls to travel around the camp alone or even in small groups. Often, the older girls only leave the house with their mother or another older family member to go grocery shopping or visit people in their homes. The rest of the time, the girls are doing ‘women’s work’: cooking, cleaning, collecting water and caring for younger siblings, which is all incredibly important work for the family. However, Ms. Abraham couldn’t shake the feeling that as the girls retreated inside their homes, which she described as ‘aluminum boxes,’ they disappeared from other parts of their lives, including school. Luckily, the coordinators that work in the Makani Center are often young refugees themselves and can provide some support for the girls because they understand what they have to go through every day. But sometimes they meet resistance from the families, who worry about sending the girls alone to the Center, so the coordinators do everything they can to build trust with the families. For example, if the families are worried about their daughters walking alone to the center, they arrange transportation for the girls. Ms. Abraham spoke to two coordinators at the center, both young and married, who described their efforts to develop a pathway for the girls to keep attending school, and also help give them guidance and emotional support for life skills. They like to encourage openness in topics like boys, relationships, or wearing a bra for the first time. The girls look up to the coordinators as role models who aren’t a mother or sister, but rather a trusted mentor outside of the family who can give advice. The girls need extra support when they reach adolescence, because life is harder and more complicated at that point—they are entering the age when they might have to marry. According to statistics, many Syrian girls as young as twelve are discontinuing their education and getting married to much older men. Parents struggling to feed their families sometimes choose to marry
refugee project news
The Refugee Children Crisis
By Sabrina Guo, 12 Until reading the recent news headlines, you may have had the impression that the refugee crisis that occurred from 2015 to 2016 was over. However, as we are quickly learning, the refugee crisis is ongoing, and not just in the United States. There has been a sharp rise in the number of people going to Europe to claim asylum, and governments within the European Union (EU) have been trying to stop any movement of undocumented migrants with their countries. The EU has done many things to stop asylum seekers, such as closing legal routes, which leads refugees to take more dangerous routes with a higher level of dependence on people smugglers. This leads states to try to crack down on refugees even harder, and the cycle is exacerbated. Also, many refugees are stuck in refugee camps, while others struggle to start a new life in places they’ve already settled in. Even though many different countries have tried to stem the flow of refugees to their countries, there are still more and more people who are trying to flee persecution in their home countries by seeking asylum in European countries and the United States. Which leads me to my next point! Did you know that there are more than 65 million people in the world who have been forcibly displaced from their home countries? And that nearly half of all refugees are children? Almost half! So when we read about refugees, we’re often reading about kids our age or the age of our siblings, cousins, and friends. This got me thinking: what are some things that a refugee child might experience when trying to migrate to our country? Sometimes, on the news, it can sound like it’s a simple, fast process to immigrate to the United States. But as I read up on the issue, I found out that it’s far from easy or quick. For example, I read this article on the International Rescue Committee website (link below) that described—in easy to understand graphics—what one family had to go through to come to the U.S. from Syria. This family lived in a conflict zone, and after the father in the family was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet, the family registered their request to leave Syria with the UN. And then they waited for three years before they heard anything back. Three years! Can you imagine waiting to hear back about whether you could leave for three years? I think about the kids in that family. The article says the parents were very scared for their children’s lives in Syria. But on a more minor level—can you imagine living your life in limbo for that long? For example, these children must not have known they would stay in the same country as the friends they were making at school. After waiting for three years, the family finally heard back from the UN, and from there, it took about eight months of interviews and processing before they were vetted and could leave Syria for America. The whole process took nearly four years! The length and difficulty of the process really struck me. And then when once a refugee family or child gets to the U.S., there’s still the process of assimilation to go through, not to mention the pain of leaving other family members, friends, and an entire way of life behind in their home country. Once in their new country, refugees often face discrimination at school or in public. For example, many people across the globe think that Syrian people are terrorists, which is not true. Syrians are against ISIS, and they do not support them. ISIS is a criminal organization, and Syrian citizens are the ones that are truly paying the price. Many refugee children need psychological support because of having suffered through terrible circumstances in their home countries, including being separated from their parents and family because of conflict, having to travel hundreds and thousands of miles in unfamiliar surroundings without the protection of their guardians. Without any support, they are in danger of being abused, treated poorly, or physically harmed. These are just some of the ways that refugee children may experience trauma. Luckily, some schools in the US have already started some programs that will help create more friendly interactions between children with different backgrounds, and help them learn about each other’s cultures. There are also many other organizations, psychologists, and artists who are working with refugee children to help them make sense of their experiences and circumstances. Certain organizations, like Another Kind of Girl Collective, hold workshops for the children in refugee camps, helping them to express themselves and their experiences through art. Other organizations, like War Child, provide education and psychological care for children in conflict zones around the world. And there also plenty of organizations and opportunities to help with the current refugee crisis in the United States. I’m including a list of links below for any readers who would like to become involved and help kids our age. If I could say anything to the children coming over to the US, I may not fully understand your struggles, but I am trying to comprehend the many hardships you may face each day. I welcome you to America, and I hope that you will enjoy settling in here. I hope you find an America that is warm and supportive of you, and I hope you will like your new home with us. The process of coming to America (with easy to understand graphics): https://www.rescue.org/article/coming-america-reality-resettlement The vetting process to come to the US: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/29/us/refugee-vetting-process.html A UNICEF study showed that half of all refugees are children: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/sep/07/nearly-half-of-all-refugees-are-children-unicef-report-migrants-united-nations Types of trauma refugee children can undergo: https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/refugee-trauma The number of refugees there in the world: https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/forced-to-flee-how-many-refugees-in-the-world Common myths about refugees: https://www.rescue.org/article/seven-common-myths-about-refugee-resettlement-united-states https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/05/five-myths-about-the-refugee-crisis https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-refugee-experience/201701/5-myths-about-refugees Ways you can help with the current refugee crisis in the US: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/18/heres-list-organizations-are-mobilizing-help-separated-immigrant-child/?utm_source=All+Volunteers&utm_campaign=0a7bde8aa8-Annual_Report_2016_General_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cf7b4c1f47-0a7bde8aa8-197492957 https://www.theyoungcenter.org/volunteer-at-the-young-center/?utm_source=All+Volunteers&utm_campaign=0a7bde8aa8-Annual_Report_2016_General_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cf7b4c1f47-0a7bde8aa8-197492957 A list of organizations that work directly with refugees: Mercy Corps:
Escape from Aleppo, Reviewed by Claire Rinterknecht, 13
Nadia’s family had a plan. If ever their house was bombed they were supposed to meet at the dentist’s office. But Nadia is terrified of leaving her house because she already knows what it feels like to live through a bombing and the shrapnell in her leg is a constant reminder. So when her sister wakes her up one night to leave because the bombing is getting close Nadia hesitates a moment too long and is thrown out the front door by the force of the bomb. Her family leaves her for dead. But she’s not dead and when she regains consciousness she makes her way to the dentist’s office where she finds a note from her grandmother saying they are on the way to Turkey. So Nadia sets out on the long journey alone. But she doesn’t stay lonely for long. Along the way she meets an old man with many identities and his donkey, Jamila. They travel together to the old man’s friend’s house where they meet two orphaned boys who join them. But hiding from the Syrian Army, the rebel groups, bombers and snipers make their journey to the border very long and perilous. Last year I made a friend who was Syrian and who, five years before had fled from the war when her kitchen was bombed. This book helped me understand a little better what she went through and what other refugees are still going through today. I did not enjoy this book very much because I did not like the style of writing and it was very hard to like the main character, Nadia. She was a one dimensional character who didn’t have much personality. She was self absorbed and did not seem to realise that having perfect nails in the middle of a warring country did not matter. However, by the end of the book she became more likeable but I never really liked her enough to worry about whether she would get to the border. Even though I did not like the main character or the style of writing, Escape from Aleppo gave me a clearer picture of what is happening in Syria. I also learned a lot about Syrian culture and how and why the war started in the first place. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about what is happening in Syria but not to someone who wants a good story with a strong main character. Escape from Aleppo by N.H. Senzai. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2018. Buy the book here and support Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? If so, comment below!
