Life in Zaatari: An inside look

April 19, 2013

Until a few weeks ago, I had only read about refugee camps. I wondered what they were like. Then I found myself standing in Zaatari refugee camp on the Jordan-Syria border where an estimated 140,000 Syrians now live, according to the Jordanian government. This camp opened only last July.

Here I’ve selected a few of my photos to show you, as best as I can, the basic anatomy of this refugee camp and give you some sense of the experience for families there.

The registration area for new arrivals. Za'atari is run jointly by the Jordanian Government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Refugees cross the border at night, under the cover of darkness. The Jordanian army receives them at the border and the IOM busses them to nearby Za'atari where they are registered, receive ration cards and medical attention if needed. ALL PHOTOS: Lisa Hoashi/Mercy Corps

Running this camp is a daily logistical feat. For the last month, the camp has received between 2,000-3,000 refugees each day. If there are an average of five people in a family, that can mean supplying and setting up as many as 600 tents daily.

A mother settles into a semblance of a daily routine as she washes dishes after a meal. Families in Za'atari receive tents, mattresses, blankets, cooking pans and utensils, food and water.

Following custom, shoes are removed at the entrance of a family’s tent.

A makeshift kitchen in the back of one family’s tent. A dishwashing area, a place to make tea, a trash bag.

Living in such close quarters, families take pains to keep their space tidy and orderly. Mattresses and blankets are stacked off to the side during the day, clothes bundled into bags.

Za'atari’s “Main Street.” Entrepreneurs, like anywhere else in the world, have sprouted up throughout the camp. People sell all manner of goods including fruits and vegetables, nuts, mobile phones and shoes.

Mercy Corps has constructed a water supply system at Za'atari that consists of two deep wells, a pump station and a chlorination system that will support up to 65,500 refugees. The remaining water supply will continue to be trucked in.

School is offered to children in Za'atari, but they still have a lot of free time. Mercy Corps, in partnership with UNICEF, has constructed and is operating five playgrounds and multipurpose sports courts in the camp.

Mercy Corps and UNICEF have set up a “cinema tent” in Za'atari camp, where kid-friendly movies are shown daily.

Shahed, 10, (in blue) survived the bombing of Dara’a, her hometown. I instantly sense her strength, and know she’ll be O.K. Still, I am glad when she dashes off. It’s Friday and her mom has a special chicken dinner waiting, like Sunday dinner in the U.S. Rituals in camp help keep families together, and Shahed will need hers.

I do this in full recognition that my time in Zaatari was short. I still wonder what it is really like for families there. What it is like to have fled across the border as your own government shot at you. To live in a tent filled only with possessions you carried in your hands or that you received out of charity. To only hope to return home but have no real idea if or when that might happen. Simply put, only these Syrian families could tell you what it is really like there.

Perhaps that’s the greatest lesson of my visit. Though a camp is filled with uniform rows of tent upon tent, living in it will be a singular, life-changing event for every individual there.