House calls

Ruseifeh-Huttein

Today our team was assigned a clinic in the Jordanian Woman Union branch in Ruseifeh. By now, I was comfortable seeing all kind of cases, familiar with the common conditions that will likely be seen and the type of resources available, just in time for the last day of the mission!

The morning was steady stream of patients. There was the girl that came with her mother in her school uniform. The old man that came to me with a smart phone that has a picture of his medications was also impressive. It was impressive not only because he has a picture of all his medication but also because he owned a smart phone. The fact that you need to know is that all the refugees that I saw carry a cell phone. My understanding is that UNHCR helped them get a primitive phone to track and get hold of them. Each refugee has a UNHCR number and a cell phone number.

I have arranged to spend the afternoon going to refugee houses with Dia. I had monetary donations that I wanted to make sure that 100% of it went to the needy families. We bought boxes of essential food supplies and went from house to house to deliver them. Dia is a young Syrian Jordanian. He came to Jordan when he was 3 year old. He speaks with a Jordanian accent but he has Syria and the Syrians in his heart. He has a list and records of many of the refugees and what was delivered to them and when.

The area was called Jabal Faisal (or the mountain of Faisal) and is made of random buildings separated by trashed dirt roads. We knocked on the first door. I was told that the husband is outside looking for work. A man opened the door and identified himself as the owner of this "rental property". Inside there were two women, the wife of the man who was looking for a job and her sister. One was in her full make up while the other appeared disturbed. There were two young kids running between the two rooms. The wife told me that her husband was outside looking for work because they didn't pay the rent for the past three months. I'm not sure if you know the tradition of the Middle East but it is not the norm for an unrelated man to be behind closed doors with women. I'm still disturbed by this visit and I asked Dia to have someone look into this family's situation further.

The common theme of all the visits was that many are crammed into small rooms. They all live on twin size sponge mattresses on the floor. Some of these mattresses don't even provide support. Many are living in water damaged, moldy rooms. There were kitchens combined with bathrooms, and a swing set made of rubber hose, yet many beautiful children everywhere.

She must be in her sixties, she opened the door to us into her tiny house comprised of two rooms. Her son's family lives in one room and she lives with some of the kids in the other. She was preparing potatoes. She has applied to the UNHCR nine months ago but they were still not providing her with any assistance. She complained without avail. Her room was obviously water damaged. She begged us to help and with each time she begged I felt a knife going into my heart.

Most of the registered families receive vouchers to get biweekly supplies from designated stores in Jordan. Most of it is not enough. I was told by some that the participating stores sell them the supplies at higher price so their vouchers don't take them far. Of course not all the refugees are living in the same conditions. Some are better than others. Few have couches and TV's but others have breadcrumbs and sheet-less mattresses.

The most encouraging thing from today was that most of the school-aged children that I saw were actually going to school. Some had missed a year of schooling but the majority outside Zaatari camp is going to school. These kids are the future of Syria. They need to be healthy and educated. They should never integrate in Jordan and forget their identity because we will all come back one day and rebuild.