World Refugee Day

June 20, 2009 was World Refugee Day to mark the plight of the 42 million people around the world that have been uprooted from their homes and are struggling to survive. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports of 42 million displaced includes 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million internally displaced people uprooted within their own countries.

Of the global total of uprooted people, UNHCR cares for 25 million, including a record 14.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 10.5 million refugees. The other 4.7 million refugees are Palestinians under the UN Relief and Works Agency.

From the UNHCR 2009 annual report:

Developing countries hosted 80 percent of all refugees: Major refugee-hosting countries in 2008 included Pakistan (1.8 million); Syria (1.1 million); Iran (980,000); Germany (582,700), Jordan (500,400); Chad (330,500); Tanzania (321,900); and Kenya (320,600). Major countries of origin included Afghanistan (2.8 million) and Iraq (1.9 million), which together account for 45 percent of all refugees under UNHCR's responsibility. Other countries of origin included Somalia (561,000); Sudan (419,000); Colombia, including people in refugee-like situations (374,000), and D.R. Congo (368,000).

Here in Jordan, there is still a serious issue in regards to Iraqi Refugees although the numbers have definitely been reduced. At the peak of the crisis there were upwards of 1 million Iraqi refugees seeking safe haven in Jordan but now the numbers are closer to 150,000 Iraqi refugees residing in Jordan. While the Government of Jordan has loosened restrictions on the Iraqis, they are still considered guests not refugees, and they are still not legally allowed to work which results in the majority of the Iraqis falling well below the poverty line.

IRD is one of the main implementing partners of UNHCR in addressing the needs of the Iraqi refugees in Jordan. The IRD Outreach Services for Iraqi Refugees (OSIR) Program is the largest outreach program providing refugee protection assessments and assistance and tracking refugee assistance coverage throughout Jordan.

In commemoration of World Refugee Day, the IRD OSIR team held a large event for over 400 of our Iraqi beneficiaries. The event included Iraqi folklore music, clowns and jugglers, a magic show by an Iraqi magician, and an interactive play of a traditional Iraqi story. The event was a huge success!

Update and Pictures from Past Couple of Months

I’ve not been doing a good job of keeping up my blog!   It’s been a busy couple of months here in Jordan, filled with both work and fun.

On the work side, our IRD Jordan programs are going strong.  The two US Department of State funded programs in health and livelihoods will finish at the end of August but we have 2 proposals in to continue and expand those activities for another year.  Hopefully we’ll hear good news from the donors soon on those! 

The education program, CMP, continues to move ahead quickly.  The CMP team has now worked with 20 school communities and with the each of the Community – Parent – School Committees (CPSCs) they are planning for the summer extracurricular activities which will include summer camps for the children and adult education courses for the parents and community members.  Here are a few pictures from a recent CPSC meeting in a small school on the outskirts of Amman.

A lot of work, but we’ve managed to get in a lot of fun as well.  We are really trying to explore all of Jordan with our friends Eric and Ledina who are also part of the Peace Corps community! 

At the heart of spring here in Jordan (end of April, early May) we spent a day at the ruins of Umm Qais, which was one of the ten cities of the Roman Decapolis.  The ruins lie in northeastern Jordan on the border of Syria, Palestine, Israel and the disputed Golan Heights, with a beautiful view overlooking Lake Tiberias (The Sea of Galilee). Supposedly this area was occupied as early as 7th century BC and came under Roman rule around 218 BC.  

In our on-going quest to hike each of the Wadi’s along the Dead Sea, Paul and I picked another one and started trekking.  It’s amazing how different each canyon is as they are all in similar desert terrain along the rift on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.  The one we chose for this hike was one of the rare water filled wadi’s – Wadi Zarqa Ma’in (lower canyon) which carries a thermal stream with numerous cascades that originate at Ma’in Hot Springs.  We parked the car on the side of the road at the Dead Sea, passed the Arabic sign most likely stating “Do Not Enter” (but we can’t read Arabic so meant nothing to us!) and started scrambling over rocks into the canyon.  Picnics of PB&J sandwiches in this environment are absolutely amazing!

For more pictures from these adventures click here!