Mona, 53, is Syrian and lives in Amman with her family.
At the end of 2013, Mona and her family left Syria and settled first in Za’atari camp and then in Amman. “The situation was really bad,” she recalls. “I have a big family so I ran away with my kids. Of course, here in Jordan we found safety and security. And [Jordanians] didn’t fall short: the day we came to Za’atari, [...] they welcomed us.” Her children were very young but are now fully integrated in Jordanian society.
There are things we know because of our life and experience, but there are some others that we don’t know. No matter how much we learn, we always need to learn more.
Mona attends health-awareness lectures with other women. “We learnt about infectious and non-infectious diseases, about how to deal with diabetes and high blood pressure, about how to know if you have the latter,” she explains. Awareness-raising workshops are helping local communities become conscious of general health facts, like hygiene practices and disease prevention.
Mona’s twins, Ezziddine and Mahmoud, have greatly benefitted from volunteering with the Red Crescent, which organises these awareness-raising workshops. “Their lives have changed… they were depressed. [...] Thank God, they are better now, they are happy with their work and I am happy for them.”