2018 Site Visit to Hope Beyond Displacement - Part I - CRP/Service Model
Tricia R. Saur, Target Chair with contributions by Site Visit Participants
FAWCO hosted the first official site visit to a Target Project in April. A delegation of 22 women representing six Regions and FAUSA along with members from each Board spent three days meeting the beneficiaries of Hope Beyond Displacement. In this issue of Let’s Get Schooled we will start a five part series featuring insights and takeaways from the three days the participants spent at CRP meeting beneficiaries and witnessing up close and personal the profound impact the FAWCO Target Project is making on the lives of individuals, families and the community.
There is Hope Beyond Displacement!
Julie Mowat, Tricia R. Saur, Therese Hartwell
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. CRP is rekindling the inner spirit of us all!
- WangDi Schadendorf, AWC Hamburg
First let’s meet the group and look at the agenda, then we’ll tell you all about it!
Amy Patrick, North American Connection (R1)
Angie Aebersold, AWC Bern (R6)
Anne Riz-Sandweiss - AWC Bern (R6)
Celeste Brown, AWC The Hague (R4)
Hope Moore, Munich IWC (R5)- FAWCO Board
Judith Palmer Harik, AWC Lebanon (R9)
Julia Goldsby, AIWC Cologne Youth Member (R5) - Documentary Filmmaker
Julie Mowat, AWC The Hague (R4)- Organizer
Kathy Coughlan, FAUSA Board
Mara O’Day, AWC Zurich (R6)
Margie Roberts, AWC Madrid (R3)
Patti Meek, AWC Dublin (R1) - The FAWCO Foundation Board
The group traveled for five days together visiting sites of historical and cultural importance. This gave us time to get to know one another while learning about the country’s history, culture, and current conditions. The group arrived at CRP at ease with each other and with a good understanding of past and recent history of the region, and the social and economic implications Jordan copes with as a result of hosting such a large number of displaced persons in relation to their population size. With this background the group was ready to meet the CRP community!
Site Visit to the FAWCO Target Project Hope Beyond Displacement 3-Day Agenda April 12-14, 2018
Day 1 - Thursday, April 12
10:45 Arrive at CRP
11:00 Orientation and Overview of CRP
12:30 Tour Facility
1:00 Lunch
1:45 Q&A with staff about refugee challenges in Hashemi
2:30 Conversation w/ Education Specialist @ Super Girls
3:00 30-minute break-out sessions in small groups
Learning to cook Fateh Hummus with Super Girls
TBD Super Girls program
Conversation with participants and leaders of Women’s Empowerment 101
Conversation with participants and leaders of Gender-Based Violence Training
Dinner at the Center
Day 2 - Friday, April 13
10:45 Arrive at CRP
11:00 Two break-out sessions
Group A: Visit the beauty salon with participants in Economic Self-Empowerment Program
Group B: Two 40-minute workshops
Challenges for Education and Schooling
10 minute break for refreshments
CRP’s Service Model: How providing refugees with service opportunities builds their resilience
12:30 Lunch
1:15 Two break-out sessions
Group B: Visit the beauty salon with participants in Economic Self-Empowerment Program
Group A: Two 40-minute workshops
Challenges for Education and Schooling
10 minute break for refreshments
CRP’s Service Model: How providing refugees with service opportunities builds their resilience
Day 3 - Saturday, April 14
10:45 Arrive at CRP
11:00 Two 30-minute break-out sessions in small groups to prepare lunch with four CRP women from Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Sudan
12:30 Lunch
1:15 Observe Teen Group and Kids Yoga
2:00 Meet with women of the Hope Workshop: Advocacy Project Quilt & merchandise for sale
You enter CRP through a gate into a courtyard with two-story buildings on both sides which house the various classrooms, offices, childcare and youth spaces. There is a table-tennis court set up in the courtyard and chairs randomly placed creating space where people are invited to spend time.
My first impression as we arrived at the community center was how beautiful it was! Obviously on a low budget, but with bright colors, love and creativity they established a warm and welcoming atmosphere where one knows there is a community of people who care.
After an initial orientation to CRP and a tour of the facility we enjoyed our first meal at the center. Each meal during our visit was prepared by women from the CRP community. We dined outside together with staff and volunteers at a long table set up behind one of the buildings. I can assure you no one went hungry!
Firstly I loved the food, they really went to so much trouble to ensure we had everything we needed. I felt the CRP staff and the volunteers wanted to show us kindness and were proud of their achievements and our friendship. This was a very special moment for me.
- Teresa Perez, AWC Hamburg
Yes, cooking and eating together, as well as our ability to thank them and show appreciation for the meals they prepared for us was good for the refugees. It felt like they were welcoming us into their home, which helped us feel more at ease.
- Stacey Kimmig, AIWC Cologne
Who serves the CRP community?
They mostly serve each other - their service model is quite unique and powerful!
The afternoon began with a sobering session listening to three members of the staff/volunteers share their stories of how they came to Jordan and to CRP.
Kamal came from southern Iraq where he worked at a communications company in IT with experience in networking and security. He fled to the north and eventually to Jordan to escape threats that arose as the result of a security issue. He was lonely and bored - eventually he found CRP and though highly overqualified, he finds meaning in teaching the International Computer Drivers License training classes. As the first groups graduate, he will select women showing potential and teach them coding. Kamal is hoping to be resettled in Australia.
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Sara escaped Syria - twice! First with her parents and injured sister after her father was targeted by the government for representing protesters; their home was bombed and destroyed. Sara returned to Syria to continue her university studies (in English). She married and became pregnant, her husband was conscripted into the military so they decided to flee because he did not want to fight. Together with 200 other civilian they walked toward the border amid active conflict - part of their group was struck and there were casualties. Sara and her husband are the only two who cross the border that day - they are immediately taken to a camp, which she describes as “hell”, with rodents and water that is not clean.
Today Sara lives in Amman with her husband and two children- they left the camps on a pass to visit her father; they never returned which meant that they had to forfeit their identity documents. This is Sara biggest fear - that she can not prove who she is and that her children are hers! This revelation had a powerful impact on our group listening to her story. Valerie Russell (AWC Amsterdam) shares her thoughts:
I can’t even imagine the fear, hopelessness, depression, anxiety, and many other emotions that I know I would feel in this situation. Just days before I expressed annoyance in getting identity documents, but I never questioned that I would get them. As a mom, my heart broke for her. Watching the wave of emotion come over her and realizing that this was the first time she had told her story like this showed me the true strength that she has. Watching the community gather around her and help lift her back up reaffirmed that CRP is truly a community and really making an impact.
Fortunately, the UN is offering an amnesty period for those who left the camps and need documentation - This will allow Sara to apply for IDs for her and her family. These days Sara works at CRP as a Youth Programs Coordination Volunteer. She hopes to settle in the UK to be near her parents, who were recently resettled.
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Nada’s city in Iraq was heavily bombed and she became an Internally Displaced Person (IDP), This status was painful for her because she felt helpless and discriminated against in her own country. She fled to Jordan and acquired refugee status. She has found purpose at CRP as the FAWCO Program Coordination Volunteer! Nada has been granted a resettlement visa to Australia where she hopes to join her aunt. She is waiting patiently to be told when she can go.
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Throughout their presentations and those of other staff/volunteers was the deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for being a part of the CRP community center. Through their work and relationships they each rediscover their dignity and worth - they find joy and healing despite their temporary status and uncertain future.
CRP serves a diverse group of individuals from different countries, religions, sects, socio-economic backgrounds and sexual orientation. While these things matter, they do not play role in who is or is not welcome within the CRP community - it is a safe place for everyone!
Waseem teaches English at CRP and made a lasting impression on Julie Mowat (AWC The Hague):
During the second day of the site visit, I heard Waseem speak on a panel. He shared how he came to Jordan and what CRP has meant to him. He is 19 and identifies LGBT. He said that he knew, at age 13, that he would have to leave Iraq one day because he could be killed for being gay. At 14 or 15, he came to visit his sister in Jordan. Once he arrived, his parents told him to stay for his safety.
Waseem expressed lots of gratitude to CRP and hopes to resettle in Australia. He has been a very active volunteer with the program. It was so fun to see how excited he was about giving back. He is clearly bright, kind and a fun person to be with. He is filled with resilience. His parents have been sending support and have said they can do 2 more years and then he is on his own. Then what happens? He has no ties to Australia. None to the US.
I could see Waseem thriving in the US. Maybe it is because his English accent is American and his mannerism reminds me so much of many of my son’s friends. I will never forget Waseem and hope that his resilience continues to shine when times get tough.
Three staff/volunteers
We’ll finish up Part I with Patti Meek’s (AWC Dublin) takeaways:
It seems a strange choice, but the sessions that resonated with me the most were the overview of CRP and the session on their service model. CRP began in 2006 when two American women wanted to help the refugees arriving in Amman in flight from conflict during the second Gulf War. They started by offering emergency help with food, heating in the winter, fans in the summer, back to school help in the autumn, and to keep families in a stable housing situation. This is still a cornerstone of CRP’s work
In Ireland, I volunteer for an organisation that provides very similar kinds of emergency help to individuals and families experiencing crisis. It struck me that the need caused by displacement is not unique in and of itself. What is unique about their work is the ‘repair” that they try to bring about in their target community. From a single small apartment, CRP has slowly expanded into a warren of rooms over two floors and parts of two buildings which houses their community center. They host workshops for children, teens, men and women. They offer classes, training passionate and capable participants to lead further classes. The Super Girls program (made possible by FAWCO fundraising) creates a safe place for girls to process the traumatic circumstances that have led them to Jordan, to learn skills to cope with the past and move forward, in strength, to a better future. Teens gather to escape the boredom that accompanies a refugee life: no school (schools are bad, rough, expensive or they are too long out of education to catch up with their peers), no work (refugees generally have no permission to work or are limited to a few categories of manual labour), no money. CRP organises weekend outings or offers a place for them to hang out together and play ping pong. Women and men can take workshops or learn skills that will improve their prospects of earning income . Women work together in the beauty shop and making handicrafts. Everyone can use the computer room to learn or improve their computer or English language skills.
I was so impressed with the vibrant atmosphere in the CRP centre. Their clients’ desire to engage is tremendous and the service model is very well thought out and self-sustaining. All that is lacking is more room- to accommodate more people and more activities, to allow this community a chance to repair itself.
You enter CRP through a gate into a courtyard with two-story buildings on both sides which house the various classrooms, offices, childcare and youth spaces. There is a table-tennis court set up in the courtyard and chairs randomly placed creating space where people are invited to spend time.
