Diapers make a difference for Syrian families

Ashraf is a 29-year-old married man from Daraa with two children: 4-year-old Mayssam and a 1-and-a-half-year-old Baraa’. He has been residing in Za’atari Refugee Camp for two years now. His father has bought a caravan (a prefabricated structure) for him to live in with his family.  

"I wish to be employed, so I could generate some income," says Ashraf.

He used to work in a governmental shoe factory that made footwear for the Syrian police. Today, he is unemployed. “I wish to be employed, so I could generate some income,” says Ashraf. As a result of his lack of employment, he is unable to fulfill his children’s needs, let alone their desires. Mayssam, for instance, desires to have a bicycle like other children, but his father does not have enough money to buy one for him. Like many parents, Ashraf wants nothing more than to provide his children with everything they need and want.

Although he receives vouchers for diapers for his youngest child, he struggles to get to the distribution point and is often forced to sell some of the diapers in order to buy other things the family needs, like vegetables.

Ashraf laments the fact that he can’t provide the things his kids need. But, he is glad they are alive and safe, especially after he remembers how a rocket fell onto his neighbour’s house. “I want my children to grow up to become better than us and not to experience war and suffering,” adds Ashraf.

Daif Allah, whose name means God’s guest, is another Syrian refugee. He is 32 years old and originally from Homs, although he and his two children (Metaab, 8 months, and Aryam, 4 years) have been calling Za’atari camp “home” for a year and a half. They left Syria in 2012 and originally sought refuge in rural Homs before making the long and tiring journey to Za’atari Refugee Camp.

“We used to sell the vouchers we receive to buy what we needed, we cannot do that now!,” remembers Daif Allah.

“We used to sell the vouchers we receive to buy what we needed, remembers Daif Allah. “We cannot do that now!,”  Unlike Ashraf, Daif Allah is happy his children have a safe place to live and the basic things they need to survive.

Like Ashraf, he is grateful for the diapers. He regularly receives enough diapers although sometimes he is forced to change with others to get the right size for his child’s stage.

“War has had a devastating impact on many Syrian families and has left more than nine million people in need of aid,” said Hatim Abbassi, World Vision Jordan’s Cash and Voucher Programming Specialist. “Diapers are a needed item for children, people with disabilities and the elderly at Za’atari Refugee camp,” he explains.

The distribution team manages a camp-wide distribution through which beneficiaries were very grateful because diapers are a necessity that burdened them heavily.

Together with the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision has distributed more than 1,650,000 diapers during the second phase of this project.