Day 3 Reflection for Islamic Relief Women’s Empowerment Trip to Jordan: Health, Education, Aspirations
I’m so inspired, truly, by the people on the ground who have devoted their lives to relief work. Today, we visited a state of the art mobile education bus that serves as a school for children in an extremely remote area in Jordan. The bus is powered by solar energy and the surrounding homes also benefit from the solar panels throughout the day. It was so amazing to see this high tech bus provide so much value to the kids in the area. For some, this is the only type of schooling they receive because it can be difficult to find transportation to public schools. Islamic Relief workers come an hour earlier and prep meals for the kids to ensure that the 29 children who attend are receiving at least one full meal a day. The bus is equipped with computers, internet access, a bathroom, and fun glowing lights! The teachers start the day with some outdoor physical activities and end with Arabic grammar 😅
We then ventured to Sabha, which is a two hour drive from Amman, and met a community of around 100 Syrian refugees living in makeshift tents and receiving health care through the IR mobile health clinic. Both a female and male doctor are present to assist our brothers and sisters with primary health care. The mobile health clinic is well stocked with common medicines and serves as the community’s pharmacy as well. It is also solar powered and the doctors see about 60-70 patients a day. The bus will continue to move around to underserved communities since many refugees can’t afford access to proper healthcare.
As parents, we are constantly trying to take preventive measures to ensure our kids are healthy. When they get sick, we have trouble sleeping. We check their temperatures, call doctors, pick up medicine, and then try to regain healthy gut bacteria by giving them probiotics and kefir.
We wonder if we should move to a neighborhood with a better school district, fret over private or public school education, supplement with online tutoring, and then worry if we are putting too much pressure on them.
So many of us have hopes and aspirations for our children. They all may be different goals, but at the end of the day, we want them to lead a happy and fulfilling life. The children I met today are no different than our own. Abdullah wants to be a pilot and mini Marwa wants to be a princess/teacher/doctor ❤️. I pray that Allah opens doors of opportunity for each one of them and they are fully equipped to walk through those doors when the time comes.
