Second Syrian camp gives refugees breathing space, safe haven

MAF camp

By Muath Freij and Gioia Forster

ZARQA — The increasing violence in the Syrian city of Homs forced Eyad Al Munajjed to flee to Jordan with his family.

"It really was a difficult decision to make, but I had to because it was becoming dangerous for my family to stay in Syria," he said.

When Munajjed first arrived at the Mreijeb Al Fhoud Refugee Camp, an hour's drive from Amman, 18 days ago, he did not expect to find the safety he had been yearning for these past two years.

"Before I came to Jordan, I did not even dare send my children out to play. Now, they can enjoy their time with their new friends because I know they are safe," he told The Jordan Times in his trailer.

Munajjed is one of the 2,514 refugees currently residing in the camp, including 601 men, 753 women, 886 children — aged between two and 18 — and 274 infants under the age of two, according to the camp's media centre director, Talib Abutalib.

Located 25km east of Zarqa, the camp began receiving refugees on April 10 and is fully funded and managed by the UAE, Abutalib noted.

"The camp, which consists of seven zones, only receives families. These come directly from Syria; no one is transferred here from the Zaatari Refugee Camp," he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview at the camp.

Built at a cost of $10 million, the new camp comprises 770 trailers, 258 of which are currently still vacant. Each trailer accommodates three to six people.

"Around 120 to 150 people come to the camp every day," he noted.

Equipped with an emergency power generator, the camp houses a medical centre, two schools, a mosque, a playground, a recycling centre, two water pumps, one supermarket and three TV rooms, Abutalib added.

The schools, one for boys and one for girls, have not opened yet, according to Abutalib. In total, the schools can receive up to 4,000 students.

Mreijeb Al Fhoud is well secured with surveillance cameras set up across the camp and within its facilities, he added.

He said the residents receive three meals a day and are not allowed to cook independently.

The camp will also include a marketplace, which will consist of several stores, such as barbershops and mobile phone vendors.

Thirteen-year-old Saeed Eissa said he enjoys playing with his new friends at the playground.

"We don't go out around noon because the weather is extremely hot," the Daraa-born added.

Munajjed's son Omar said he still has the chance to play his favourite game — football.

"When my seven-year-old son brought a football with him, he made friends easily," his father said with a smile.

Hana Saleh, a Syrian from Daraa who is in charge of the women's TV room, said that the women usually gather there in the evening once temperatures have cooled down.

"It is a place where Syrian women can spend their leisure time. They also gather especially to watch the news to learn what is happening back home. This room is a meeting place for us and we only talk about the instability in Syria," added Saleh, mother of seven.

The medical centre's managing director, Mohammad Al Ameri, said the facility comprises eight clinics, including paediatrics, gynaecology and internal medicine.

"Children are the main patients who frequent the centre," he added.

Ameri said 10 Jordanian nurses and eight doctors, three of whom are from Syria, work at the centre.

"All the staff are men, but we have a midwife who deals with women's cases," he told The Jordan Times at the centre.

He noted that the centre does not perform surgeries.

"This centre is part of the Jordanian-UAE field hospital in Mafraq, so we refer the cases that need surgeries to the hospital. At least two women from the camp gave birth at the hospital," he added.

The doctor noted that in the future, a hospital will be established in the camp so that they can perform surgeries.

jordan times

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Found on http://jordantimes.com/second-syrian-camp-gives-refugees-breathing-space-safe-haven