Our Collective Responsibility Towards Refugees | Aya’s Reflections

By Aayesha Fazal | 29, Apr, 2020
Our Collective Responsibility Towards Refugees | Aya’s Reflections

Aya Fadan, Senior Community Based Protection Assistant in Jordan © UNHCR

Aya Fadan is a Senior Community Based Protection Assistant for UNHCR in Jordan. These are her reflections from her experiences at UNHCR working directly with refugees.

“When I applied to this job, I was thinking of the challenges I might face. I live in a peaceful place and now I will be helping people who are escaping war and seeking asylum.

For us, we usually pack whenever we travel for a vacation, or when moving to another house, maybe to a more luxurious one. But we see the other side of travel here in the camp. The people who packed their essential items not knowing where they will go, but just to save their souls and their families. That is what inspires me to support them and be more understanding of their emotional and physical needs. 

My role is to support the refugees who have suffered from war and displacement regardless of their differences, and to ease their access to services. I used to provide awareness sessions for refugees in topics like education, health, protection and food-security. I also provided sensitized awareness sessions for women and girls, to raise their knowledge about their rights, self-confidence and respect, empowerment, and the availability of protection services.

Me being a female most likely gave other female refugees the confidence to approach me and share their personal sensitive matters. They feel comfortable to talk about their concerns. This also gives me the chance to support them and lead them to the self-development activities that are available in the camp, such as physical well-being, sewing, and education related courses.

After five years of experience in this humanitarian field, I feel as a woman responsible to keep on providing the needed assistance, with the same passion that I started with on day one, and to keep on following up on their needs despite the limited available services we might have.” 

 

How can you support UNHCR’s on-the-ground work with refugees?

To facilitate the contributions of Muslims all over the world, UNHCR has launched its Refugee Zakat Fund, a trusted, compliant and effective distributor harnessing the power of Zakat to transform the lives of refugees.. Let’s fulfill our responsibility towards refugees. 

To learn more and contribute you can visit: https://bit.ly/HalalTripZakat

*This article is from CrescentRating-UNHCR’s Joint Publication - Forced Displacement : A Reality For Millions Of Women. You can learn more and download the publication here.

Social Impact Advocate | Refugee Cause

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