Relief Assistance for Syrian Refugees in Jordan

JEN has continuously been working on improving water and sanitation environment at the Za’atari Syrian refugee camp. So we have meetings with other NGOs on regular basis. At the meeting, a new interesting idea came up by our senior staff. “Let’s organize a football tournament, where a sports event and hygiene promotion activity could be organized, with passing invitations to both of the local community and NGOs operating at the Za’atari Syrian Refugee camp footballers”.

The idea expected to bridge between the communities. “The gap between the local community and the NGOs community at Mafraq governorate is obvious, so the event could be one of the methods we can use to facilitate a joint understanding towards both of the communities”. JEN sponsored for all of the equipment required for the event, in a way that shows our commitment towards the local community and organizing such events for further integration process between the different targeting communities.

On Thursday October 8 2015, the football event was taken place. Eight teams attended the draw for the tournament. The participated teams were: JEN; International Relief and Development; and UNHCR teams; 4 teams from the local community, and one team from the Za’atari Syrian Refugee Camp. They all had one goal to enjoy the day with colleagues who they had not  had a chance to meet before.

For one of the purposes of the event as a hygiene promotion, the fifty children aged from four to five years old from the Za’atari Charitable Association came to join the event with their teachers. Previously, they had been invited by JEN’s hygiene promotion specialists for the sessions, role plays and activities that was targeting to get them familiar with the daily hygiene practices they should follow on daily basis while they were in school or at home like hand washing and teeth cleaning. The event concluded with distributing personal hygiene kits to the children. The excitement rose rapidly during the event and everybody seemed to have a great fun. All of the players were supported by the audience and it is the same as the players were joining international football matches with traditional songs, clapping or dancing over and over.

By the end of the event and after the final match, JEN honoured the winner of the tournament, the second place and the tournament best scorer. After announcing his name with the total of eight goals he scored during the three  matches, the best scorer Yazan’s smile was pretty. It seemed that he was proud of achieving a personal goal. This is because he was one of the main players to lead his team to the first place in the tournament.

After the closing ceremony, everybody agreed that we should organize such the event again in different villages surrounding the Za’atari Syrian Refugee Camp as it had a positive effect on all humanitarian operations that the NGOs were organizing. The host communities will also feel good when they are well supported by international NGOs even by simple activities like this tournament.