ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP
Zaatari is a refugee camp in Jordan and is home to a staggering 80 000 Syrian refugees. The camp was constructed by the government of Jordan and international agencies and was opened in July, 2012. It was established as part of a massive emergency response after the civil war in Syria started in 2011. The inititial camp was built in a mere nine days and was designed to accommodate one hundred families. Four years later, Zaatari seems more like a 'tent city' than a camp with a public services such as hospitals, schools, mosques and some 3 000 refugee-owned shops. The sprawling camp is divided into twelve districts across thirteen square kilometres and surrounded by a barb wire fence. Refugees cannot leave the camp without permission.
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Zaatari has the most concentrated settlement of Syrian refugees. The camp, which has fluctuated in population to as high as 250,000, is now the 4th largest ‘city’ in Jordan. Zaatari is home to 3000 small businesses including shops that sell pizza, falafel, a supermarket, bakeries, pastry shops, a gardening shop, barbers and even a shop that rents bridal gowns. Many of the Syrian refugees that live in Zaatari have tried to recreate the lives they left behind in Syria.
An estimated 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of the civil war in March 2011. Among those escaping the conflict, the majority have sought refuge in neighbouring countries or within Syria itself. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and 6.6 million are internally displaced within Syria.
Image Maranie Rae Photography
Image from Metro
It is estimated that half of the 80 000 Syrian refugees who are living in Zaatari are under the age of 18, making the provision of basic education challenging, at best (UNHCR, 2016). There are currently nine schools operating in the camp, all on a double shift basis, with girls studying in the mornings and boys in the afternoon. Regular attendance is markedly low. According to UNHCR, about one in every three children in Zaatari does not go to school at all. Initially many parents thought there was no point sending their children to school because they assumed they would be back in Syria within months. That has proved not to be the case.
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Image Maranie Rae Photography
In the Zaatari camp it is common for boys to drop out of school so that they can take jobs to earn money to help their families. Many young girls are having their education cut short so they can be married off at a young age often in an effort to reduce the number of mouths a family has to feed. Some families don't send their daughters to the Camp schools because they feel it is so far to walk to school or unsafe for the girls to walk by themselves. Other girls are expected to stay at home and look after younger siblings allowing the adults to find paid employment.
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