June 18th Mission Update

 

Today we are at the Jordan Women’s Union (JWU) Clinic in Irbid for the day. We arrived in the morning and everyone and the locals started helping with unloading the vans and setting up a room for the pharmacy, then rooms for OBGYN, eye exams, dentistry, general medicine, dermatology, and a corner for the humanitarians to read to the kids, do face painting, play games, etc, and a special area for teaching hygiene and teeth brushing for the kids.

For the first time on the mission we have a handyman, Matt, who came in with tools and started to evaluate the building and their needs for maintenance and repairs, and starts to work. Our missions are able to offer more and more services! It’s great to see them evolve like this.

I am sitting in the room we have designated for the dentist and watching the doctors and the people using whatever they can to give the best service in unusual conditions. Just yesterday they were working in a tent with little water, using lawn chairs for the patients and little paper cups to spit in. The dentist is using a big doll to show people how to brush their teeth and is laughing and playing with the kids.

Our drivers that we have on the mission are usually the same people each time and know the routine. The local teenagers are wanting to help and hand out things and do whatever we need – they remember us from previous missions, too. Irbid has the largest population of Syrian refugees (not in camps) since it is so close to the border. Most of them are living in apartment buildings with 10 or 20 family members in one room and no furnishings besides their mattresses on the floors but they do have walls and a bathroom. So much better off then the people we saw yesterday.

It seems after coming for the last two years the situation is not getting better and we have more and more people needing help.