Hadeel fled Iraq in 2015 after the invasion of Mosul’s region by Daesh (also known as ISIS). She is from one of the villages of the Nineveh Plain in Northern Iraq that was occupied and looted by Daesh from 2014 to 2015. Hadeel was forced to flee not just because of looting and occupation, but because Daesh’s goal was the massacre of Assyrian people.
Assyrian people are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East, typically Syriac Christians who claim to be descendant of Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, adhering to East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, hence their persecution by Daesh. Hadeel is a member of this minority.
Even though the Iraqi government slowly recovered her town until it was fully recovered Hadeelis a mother of two children, and needed to find a safe place for them to evade harassment, or even death. She couldn’t risk this situation of persecution again. She came to Amman in hope that she would be able to reconstruct a life, but conditions remain difficult, and recovering from the trauma of displacement is a long, hard process.
When she arrived here, her children did not have access to Jordanian schools. While CRP’s assistance of educational material, in the form of uniforms and school supplies, has helped them to join a school in East Amman, her husband still can’t work legally. As parents unable to join the labor market, they both struggle to find a source of income to support their family. Food insecurity is a major hardship for refugees located in Amman, because they’re forbidden by law to work, and therefore find themselves begging for food.
“I came to find safety here in Amman, but my husband cannot work and we have two kids to support. Without the food vouchers I receive from CRP, and all the programs I go to, life would be difficult,” Hadeel says.
She heard about CRP’s emergency-assistance program and educational activities through the women in her community, who were partaking in English classes and also receiving food vouchers. After an assessment, CRP enrolled her in our food voucher program. This allows her to feed her family, and to take her mind off thinking how she will able to support them the next day. She comes once a month to pick up her vouchers, which she uses to purchase groceries at the local supermarket throughout the whole of the following month.
Since her children are busy at school during the day, she now also has the time to join many of CRP’s activities, which will teach her the skills to make a living. Most recently she took our women’s beauty school, which teaches our female beneficiaries to become professional make-up artists. Having graduated from this class, she now has the opportunity to open a business here in Amman, and to earn savings while waiting for her asylum application process for Australia.
While life can be extremely difficult for refugee women of all origins, religions, and circumstances living in Amman, CRP continues to give them the tools to build resilience and a chance to overcome some of the difficulties they experience on a daily basis.
You can help to give them these tools too. Donate now.