by DOMINIQUE SOGUEL
Amman, Mafraq and Ramtha, JORDAN (WOMENSENEWS)–Salwa Eqta has two mattresses and a small collection of pots that she cannot use because her home has no kitchen or running water.
One mattress she used to share with husband, before he went back to Syria. The other mattress is for her twin daughters, Rawan and Rana, and the baby boy Qassem.
Their universe has been reduced to the damp walls of a doorless warehouse in the city of Ramtha, in northern Jordan. More than half a million Syrian refugees live here, the majority of them in poor communities.
“Our situation is plain for all to see. This is how we live,” said Eqta, who is from Homs, one of the first hubs of the Syrian opposition. “We had a good house in Syria, it was furnished. My husband was a painter there but he has no work now.”
The family eats only canned food bought with coupons provided by the United Nations.
“I cannot buy vegetables because I have no tap water to wash them. Since I arrived, I’ve been able to give the girls only one bath,” she said. Reflecting their mother’s care, Rawan and Rana look clean, their hair swept up into ponytails.
When the family first arrived in Jordan, they were placed in Zaatari refugee camp. But like countless others, they decided to leave. For Eqta, the threat of a harsh winter, poor sanitary conditions and insecurity proved too much.
The warehouse is rough, but Eqta says she prefers it to the shelling in Syria or Zaatari camp, where her daughters became ill from the dust and low quality of water. “Here the environment is better,” she told Women’s eNews.
Zaatari is the largest refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan but only 118,000 of the 569,000 refugees documented by UNHCR live there. Most refugees avoid the harsh conditions of the camp, where tents and caravans offer poor protection from dust storms, rain or snow.
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