Jordanian schools are struggling to accommodate the Syrian children who found refuge in the country. Three-quarters of the 150,000 school-aged children in Jordan have yet to find a classroom this fall.
In the outskirts of Amman, a Syrian mother remembers when an explosion blew out the windows of her children’s classroom. She says “my girls stopped going to school after that. They are dying to go back to school, but even if they want to go, I must be reassured of their safety. There is no bus here. It’s a back road and anybody could snatch them. How can we be sure of their safety?”
Two Syrian women coping with their own traumatic experiences volunteered to run a makeshift kindergarden/primary school to support the many young children without a classroom. Without any formal education background, the two refuges are doing what they can with the little supplies offered. In regards to trauma, one teacher said “the children are slowly overcoming it” and “they are moving forward. In the beginning, if they heard an airplane they would all hide under the desks. In the beginning, I couldn’t stand in front of the windows, because I still was scared of coming under sniper fire.”
Meanwhile, Save the Children International collaborated with UNICEF to establish child-friendly spaces in Za’atari, the largest Jordanian refugee camp that currently houses 120,000 refugees; half are children and the number is still growing. Child protector advisor, Naima Chohan, reports that some children are grappling with intense psychological problems, manifesting as aggressive behavior and recurrent nightmares. Others have a “psychogenic muteness or deafness, or psychosomatic symptoms, such as pain in their bodies.”
Still, Naima says they generally see improvements and that “one girl would not speak, her parents thought she was dumb. Gradually she started making sounds and small words.” As a result of their efforts, some of these children are now beginning to take classes and make friends.
Naima’s colleague Ghandi Al Bakkar explains “we are committed, and addicted, to changing children’s lives and making them better. We can’t turn our backs on them.”
In Mafriq, Jordanian Al-Rubaa Bent school is attempting to find solutions and reportedly operates two separate shifts; Jordanian children in the morning and Syrian children in the afternoon. The average student population has doubled to 60 students per class, despite limited educational resources and an education barrier between Syrian and Jordanian curriculum. Reporter Jamie Francis said “some of the girls are doing better than others but they all want the world to know that they still have dreams.”
Creative Commons Love: European Commissioner DG ECHO on Flickr.com
