Project to give young refugees chance to ‘explore’ pre-war Syria

AMMAN — A virtual reality project slated for September will allow refugees in Azraq camp to explore different corners of the world, Mercy Corps said on Monday.  

In order to transcend the bounds of Azraq refugee camp, a virtual reality (VR) project will be piloted in the camp in late September, according to Mercy Corps spokerperson Mais Amarin.

The pilot project, being implemented by Mercy  Corps  and the University of Bradford’s Building Resilience Through Heritage (BReaTHe) project, is a way for Syrian refugees to see their homeland and other parts of the world they are otherwise unable to, Amarin told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

“We’ve been asking them, ‘What places do you really want to see?’” Amarin said.

As part of Mercy Corps’ psychosocial programming in Azraq camp, the programme also aims to help younger Syrians understand what their country looked like before the Syrian civil war by featuring areas as they were before the crisis, according to a Mercy Corps statement.

“We aren’t able to see Syria with our own eyes, but through VR, you brought Syria to us,” a participant said after experiencing the project.

As of June this year, 35,709 Syrian refugees lived in the camp, with the majority hailing from Aleppo, Homs and Daraa, according to UNHCR data. 

“As an organisation we believe that technology has a huge role to play in improving people’s lives,” Mercy Corps Executive Director Simon O’Connell said in the
statement.

“We’ve seen first-hand the impact that VR can have on a Syrian mother who has been displaced from her home for many years. Being able to return virtually to that home, experience it in some way again, which helps her deal with the trauma of war, is powerful and important.”