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Zaatari residents voice concerns in movie screening event

By Camille Dupire - Dec 13,2017 - Last updated at Dec 13,2017

Residents of the Zaatari refugee camp participate in a discussion following the screening of several movies at the camp on Tuesday (Photo by Alixandra Buck)

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP — Some 100 residents of the Zaatari refugee camp on Tuesday enjoyed a day of cultural activity as part of the Karama human rights' film festival held this year under the theme “Give life a chance".

Organised by Oxfam in Jordan in collaboration with ma3mal 612 for ideas, the event, titled "Cinema in refuge”, included the screening of films on human rights and discussions among the participants on the daily challenges faced by refugees in the camp, with a special focus on education.

“These films really revive our spirit of hope. This is our suffering, some of our children are forbidden of receiving education because of their situation or because of their families,” said Rana, one of the women who participated in the activity (all names were changed to preserve the interviewees' privacy), adding "I urge all the parents in the camp to encourage their children to receive and complete their education."

Screening films that reflect the reality of the lives of Syrian refugees, the activity also aimed to give the participants a chance to voice their concerns and the problems they face in a refugee camp setting.

“In the camp, there are many families who forbade their daughters from going to school, which is wrong. NGOs always try to spread awareness on the importance of education, on early marriage and this encourages many families to allow their daughters to be enrolled in schools and complete their education,” Adnan, another mother, said.

“Syria is a civilised country and we want our children, especially girls, to learn and get education. Many of our children missed out opportunities in education at the beginning of the conflict.  Syrians are creative: in the camp, they have shown many skills and done a lot of nice work in tailoring, food making, drawing and painting," she highlighted, adding "we proved ourselves and our strengths despite our situation”.

The discussion also covered the main messages the Syrian refugees wanted to convey to the world and to decision makers in order to improve their situation.

“The formal education our children receive in the school itself is not enough, many of our children do not know how to read or write properly. Here in the camp, there are some centres where our children can receive remedial classes after they finish school. These centres are the main thing that supports our children's education and we need them to expand across the camp,” another participant stressed.

While issues such as the limited educational opportunities available to Syrians especially in higher education were raised, participants also commended the various trainings they received and the source of income they provided them and their families. 

“I participated in one of the sewing courses offered by one of the NGOs in the camp. I learned how to make nice pillow covers and how to sew professionally," said Lana, noting that the training also served to help the less privileged in the camp, as they distributed the covers they created to the most vulnerable people in the camp.

One of the moderators of the discussion, Ghada Salem, economic justice policy adviser at Oxfam, said: “Education is important to find decent jobs. People in the camp especially women and breadwinners want to have their own small businesses inside the camp to be able to live in dignity and gain income to provide for their families, as it is difficult for them to go outside the camp to work and leave their children for long hours.” 

 

For his part, Safi Al Sakran from the Karama team said: “Struggles and difficulties are always in our lives and we should all move forward to find good opportunities to 'give life a chance'.”

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