2015-01-20 17:05:00

Caritas Jordan Medical Cr: caring for Syrian, Iraqi refugees


(Vatican Radio)  Haniah Bsharat is an efficient, down-to-earth woman with a ready smile.  She's Project Officer at the Caritas Medical Centre in Amman, Jordan where each day, some 100-150 mostly Syrian refugees come either by appointment or for emergency treatment or medication. 

Tracey McClure met Haniah on a recent trip to see Caritas’ response to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have arrived in Jordan having fled the ongoing conflict at home.  Some 1.5 million Syrians are currently in the Hashemite Kingdom – the overwhelming majority of them living in often inhuman conditions in rented accommodations outside U.N.-run camps.

More than five thousand Iraqi Christian refugees have also arrived in Jordan, fleeing persecution under Islamic militants in the area of Mosul and Ninevah Plains.

Listen to this program by Tracey McClure:

The refugee crisis has meant hospitals are overcrowded and homes and jobs are scarce. The cost of living has sky-rocketed and Jordan’s water and energy resources have been stretched to the limit.

Haniah explains that the Caritas Medical Centre in Amman’s former Italian hospital is for many, the only place where undocumented refugees can receive health care and a kind word.  Public hospitals and clinics are free, she observes, but they will only accept people who present valid UN registration cards – and even then, only if they have room.

“We have seen so many urgent cases, for example, newborn babies who need to be admitted to the incubator, or elderly who need to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit,” Haniah says, but they are turned away because their papers are not in order or there is no bed for them.  Caritas Medical Centre takes them in “because they have nowhere to go and it’s very urgent and life-saving; we have to see them,” she says.

In addition to urgent cases, the Caritas health centre also sees patients affected by chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and hypertension.   “Many of them didn’t have the disease back in Syria,” she explains, “but due to the stress and what they have been through and everything, they [now] have chronic care medical conditions.”

Natal healthcare awareness

Many of the women who come are pregnant, Haniah notes. “ In the Syrian culture, it’s very common that women are married very young… [by] 15 years old, she’ll be married,” she adds.

She explains that the practice, common especially among families from rural areas in Syria, continues in Jordan: “even moreso because families can’t support their daughter so they prefer to get her married to a wealthy man, to any man, just to get the burden off their shoulders.  You see a lot of young women married.”

Caritas Jordan offers pre and post-natal health care, Haniah continues.  “Back in Syria, they would only see the doctor [or the midwife] on the day of the delivery.” 

But, she says, “in Jordan it’s different.  We are trying to give them awareness that they should seek medical care; they should follow up on their pregnancy for the whole nine months and even after the delivery – to take care of the health of the mother and the child as well.”

Caritas covers 80% of the cost of health services for the refugees who come to its centre and those who can, are asked to pay only 20% of the cost of their care.  But Haniah says this fee is waived in priority cases where families and individuals are the most vulnerable.  She gives the example of a woman, perhaps a widow, who is responsible for several children and is the only head of the household.  “For us she is a priority; she is someone who needs to be assisted more.”  Others include unaccompanied elderly people and victims of violence – and unfortunately, she says, the centre sees many of these.

Many people coming to the centre are also suffering from psychological problems due to stress, Haniah notes.  For example, “when a father who used to go to work every day and earn money for his family…and in the blink of an eye he comes to Jordan and he can’t do anything,” she adds, saying it is difficult for him to ask help from a charity.

Mothers are also suffering from depression, she stresses, saying that many moms have confessed to beating their children since their arrival in Jordan.  They say, “‘we never used to do that,’” Haniah reflects. “‘But now when we come to Jordan because we are very stressed, we start beating them because we have nothing to do and [there is] nothing we can do.’”

Caritas refers such people to its counselling centre which “they love,” Haniah smiles.  “They are always willing to go and see the psychologist because they need to talk to someone to help them.”

Caritas: hope, justice, kindness…

On Haniah’s desk is a multi-colored cube with the words “Caritas: I am hope, I am justice, I am kind.” What does “Caritas” mean to people who come to your centre? I ask her.

She reflects a moment and then responds that Caritas assists Muslims, Christians and other people regardless of their religion or origin.  Usually, when asked for feedback, those who receive help from Caritas say the organization “is their hope,” Haniah says.  “Because they seek [help from] many other NGO’s; they are not treated the way they are treated at Caritas.”

She explains that the Caritas Medical Centre’s 15 social and administrative workers are trained to see people not “as if they are coming for assistance.  They are people; they are human,” stresses Haniah.  You “put yourselves in their shoes, try to make them feel as comfortable as you can.”

“It is important that the patient leaves the center “satisfied, happy, feeling good about himself, feeling proud, his dignity saved,” she adds.  “It’s much more important than the assistance that we are giving.” Every time Caritas follows up on a patient, Haniah says, “they tell us that  Caritas is the only organization that treats us as human, as one of their family; [they say] 'we can talk to them anytime, call them anytime, tell about everything.'  So, mainly, I think Caritas is hope for them.”








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