We left the hotel at 9am and headed to the same camp we were at yesterday – Camp Sahab. The physicians still had to see patients and we needed to distribute humanitarian goods.

It was an incredible and rewarding day, we got so much done. We saw a total of 600 patients in the two days, we built 4 outhouses, planted a vegetable garden and an herb garden. We distributed over 400 cans of baby formula today and 200 cans yesterday. The amount of diapers was over 1000 in all sizes for infants, toddlers, as well as teenagers and adults.

While we were there, a group of Korean tourists saw the camp and stopped to see it. The villagers brought them to me to see what they wanted. It seems that they were just wandering around and wanted to check out the camp. I had to ask them to leave unless they wanted to work and help us, or they could donate money to the camp to help the residents get food and other supplies they needed. They left.

The people of the camp were so friendly and so happy we were there and wanted to know when we would be back. It was hard to leave, and many in our group got attached to the children.

SCM will have our local volunteers in Jordan go back during Ramadan and deliver food for all the families on a weekly basis.

The people in the camp are well organized. They have elected a mayor, and he is in charge. He helped us coordinate the distribution of the baby formula – he knows all the families in the camp and the ages of all the family members, so he would call out the names of the family and they would get what they needed from us.

Whatever we bring in or we buy we distribute directly to the people who need it, just like in this case. That way we know the food, supplies, etc, go into the right hands.

AMMAM – A palpable gloom pervaded the corridors in the Radiology Department, bathed in artificial lighting and peeling hues of baby blue, pink and purple paint. In one room, an emaciated patient curled up in the fetal position.

The largest public hospital in Jordan, Al-Bashir Hospital has a reputation as a facility to be avoided at all costs. But Kiram, a Syrian refugee in her early 30s, had no other options.

– See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-refugees-battle-cancer-exile/155471180#sthash.40giZxJx.e1qov4OG.dpuf 

Today is one of those days that I really felt what I was doing was helping.

We left the hotel after a meeting with the doctors and humanitarians and headed for a new camp that was set up illegally by displaced Syrians. Because of this they have had no help from any organization – they don’t know about them. We were told by some people that were in a taxi and found this place and told our land volunteers about them to get more information and set up our visit.

The camp has 150 families which is a total of 725 people. They are living in tents across from a factory. The factory owner owns the land and he has given the right to use the land and in exchange if he needs workers they will help. The head of the village is very happy with the arrangement and the owner is not abusing the system.

The people are all from Hama. There are a lot of skin conditions like scabies, a lack of good nutrition, and the babies are very skinny and need special kinds of baby formulas.

We saw 225 patients for general medical care, 22 dental patients and 25 patients were given eye glasses.

 

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Subject: My Syrian Refugee Experience is published!!!!

Woah. I submitted a draft of my reflection piece that I wrote about our time together in Jordan at the Syrian Refugee Camps. And the Huffington Post published it in their blogs section today!!!

I was totally not expecting it (it’s very personal) but hope you like it.

Thank you to all of you and especially to my brother Samer, Bassam, Mona, Grace, David and Natasha. Any good that comes out of people reading this is thanks to all of you.

Please share it with your email and facebook contacts!

With love,
Amanda

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-jaber/she-is-an-american-girl-syria_b_5441923.html

Today the pharmacy had 200 patients, the dental clinic saw 45 patients, and the eye clinic filled 10 prescriptions. Humanitarians Jill and Soulaf were overwhelmed by the number of kids.

At the end of a long day, Drs. Ameer and Khaleel blew off some steam by playing street soccer with the neighborhood kids – everyone’s a kid at heart 🙂

~Reem Atassi (Mission Coordinator)