The IMANA Medical Relief (IMR) and United Muslim Relief (UMR) have participated in various medical and surgical missions around the world. One of them consists of providing Syrian refugees in and around Amman with free medical assistance and treatments. This program allowed them to partner with CRP recently to treat hundreds of members of our community.
“Here I never go to the doctor because of the cost and of my legal rights, this is a really good opportunity for me to see what are my medical problems,” Raa’d says. He is a refugee who fled Syria in 2012 as the civil war escalated. For many refugees, medical services are rare in Jordan, especially in its urban areas.
Around 1.4 million Syrian refugees live in Jordan, 80% of whom live in the urban areas outside of camps. Condensed in the cities of Amman, Irbid, Al-Mafraq, and Jerash, leaving them to pay out of pocket.
While primary healthcare services are provided by the UNHCR in refugee camps, the lack of available facilities in urban areas is a major concern for displaced and stateless individuals.
These developments have produced major issues in refugees’ access to services and assistance provided by the government and international organizations, not only for Syrians but also for Iraqis, Somalis, and Sudanese refugees.
Organizations such as the IMR and the UMR cooperate to compensate for this lack of medical assistance to urban refugees, while also providing additional and complementary healthcare services to refugees residing in camps.
CRP invited both these organizations in the context of their “Save Syria Medical Mission 2018,” providing free treatments and medicines to refugees in large Jordanian cities.
Spending two full days at CRP’s Family Resource and Community Center and working in cooperation with CRP’s staff members and volunteers, they provided healthcare to refugees of many different backgrounds and nationalities, giving them the opportunity for a vital medical check-up.
“Life is really difficult here, I cannot work and have to rely on my son for support. We receive very little help from large international organizations, and medical assistance is way more expensive here [than in Iraq]. CRP helps me a lot, these appointments are important because I suffer from hypertension and back ache, and needed a visit to the doctor,” says Ameera, from Iraq, who fled after the fall of Mosul to Daesh (also known as ISIS).