Fleeing your home and leaving your parents behind is difficult, especially in the midst of war.
That is the reality of Yazan, a 35 year-old father of three, who left his hometown near Damascus, Syria three and a half years ago.
Life was fine for Yazan, his wife, Maha, and children, Zaid (8), Marwan (1 ½), and Jude (7). Yazan made a decent living in Syria working in a food factory that specialized in manufacturing pasta. But once the war broke out, Yazan’s life changed forever.
Yazan took his family to Jordan where he first stayed with extended family members and shared living expenses. Because of this, his family did not meet UNHCR’s vulnerability criteria and therefore could not receive any cash assistance.
Currently, Yazan lives in a cramped apartment in Al Hussein, Jordan with his wife and children. To earn money, Yazan picks up cans on the street and sells them, but sharp pains in his arm weaken his ability to do manual labor. Maha also used to make a little money cleaning houses, but encountered harassment from her employer.
Maha quit her job rather than continue to be exploited by her employer. The family struggled to earn a decent living for a while, with Yazan only making an average of 60 JOD per month. After a recent reassessment visit by IRD, however, the family was identified as an eligible case for cash assistance by UNHCR.
It has been three months since Yazan and his family started receiving the monthly assistance. They now collect roughly 130 JOD per month, which helps cover basic living expenses like rent, food, and transportation for their two older children to go to school. Although it certainly does not cover all the family’s expenses, it is the type of help that Yazan has been seeking since he arrived in Jordan.
Yazan expressed his gratitude for IRD’s support and was happy he had a stable income to provide his family with food. However, Yazan does not dream of staying in Jordan forever. He hopes that one day the situation in Syria will get better so he can return home and reunite with his parents once again.
CBSR 2 is funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and managed by IRD.
