Humanitarian | Refugees | Memoir
Do Refugees Benefit from UN Research Studies?
And What I Learned From Interviewing Refugees in Jordan
CONTENT WARNING: This piece contains graphic language describing Syrian war killings. Feel free to opt out and read my most recent story or my most read story instead!
July 2019 — Northern Jordan
The woman, in black niqab with only her eyes showing, handed off her newborn baby girl — just 13 days old — to her older daughter, perhaps age three. The three-year-old daughter did her best to sit still, cross-legged next to her mom, and hold her younger sister in the right way, supporting the neck and head.
They looked so cute, the two of them together in a tiny little heap of arms and legs. The older sister was trying so hard to hold the baby properly. She approached her task with a grave sense of responsibility.
The mother — we’ll call her Ayla — sat next to them, vigilant and watchful, but not micro-managing. She was encouraging her daughter to practice holding the little one.
This was yesterday, outside Mafraq, Jordan. An hour north of Amman, in a tiny village in a tiny house, I spent part of my afternoon interviewing a Syrian refugee family from Homs, Syria.
