Born in a refugee camp...

(Baonghean.vn) - Five years of continuous civil war in Syria have left countless makeshift shelters for the homeless in Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp. The dense bushes have gradually formed small trails, lacking only street names. And a new generation has been born, from fathers and mothers who constantly worry that their children will never know their homeland.

A new generation is born in the Zaatari refugee camp. Photo: Reuters.

Hudhayfah Al Hariri, who fled Deraa four years ago, has witnessed Zaatari rapidly grow into a home for some 85,000 migrants, becoming Jordan's fourth most populous "city." Children play among makeshift shelters, schools are opened, doctors provide healthcare, and infants are cradled in the arms of the elderly.

Hariri, 26, had planned to get married in his hometown. The couple's future apartment had been meticulously decorated. But as the shelling intensified, he was forced to evacuate his birthplace. Hariri's wedding marked the beginning of many subsequent weddings held in a desolate camp just 15 kilometers from the Syrian border.

Hariri and his wife's wedding ceremony at a refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan, in September 2012. Photo: Reuters.

The wedding photo shows Hariri and his young wife sitting together on plastic chairs, with an orange festival carpet in the background. He looks stiff in front of the camera, while she glances away, lost in thought.

Hariri is now the father of two children. Photo: Reuters.

Now, the father of two fears that his children, born in the refugee camp – one two years old and one eight months old – may lose their connection to their homeland and the family they have been left behind.

Hariri said, “My dream is to return to Syria and raise my children there – to live on our ancestral land, so that my children can live in the best place possible. Our homeland is not here, but Syria. When they are a little older, I will tell them about it, but I still hope they will grow up in Syria.”

According to United Nations statistics, since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, more than 4.2 million people have fled Syria. Approximately 13.5 million people need protection and assistance within Syrian territory, including more than 6 million children.

The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, photographed on March 7. Photo: Reuters.

Um Ahmad, 26, was also displaced three years ago after her home in Homs was destroyed by shelling. The young woman is now pregnant with her fourth child, and this will be her second childbirth in a refugee camp.

Um Ahmad is saddened most by the fact that the children only spent the first few years of their lives in Syria, and the fading memories of their homeland are what sadden him most: “When we first arrived here, they kept asking, ‘When are we going back, Mom?’ But now they’ve forgotten about it, busy playing, studying… If we stay here for another two years, we’ll all forget about Syria.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 50-80 babies are born each week at Zaatari since the camp was established in 2012.

An estimated 50-80 new babies are born here every week. Photo: Reuters.

The camp has two reproductive health care facilities: one is a Moroccan field hospital with 60 beds, one operating room, and a staff of 118 people.

The other clinic is supported by the United Nations and has 24 beds and 39 obstetricians, pediatricians, and nurses.

Hospitals and field clinics provide healthcare for mothers and children in refugee camps. Photo: Reuters.

Baby girl Siwar was born on March 7 in a dimly lit operating room at a Moroccan field hospital, after a cesarean section performed in a tent that had been sterilized to meet surgical requirements.

A baby girl was born via Cesarean section in a sterilized surgical tent in Zaatari on March 7. Photo: Reuters.

The baby's mother, 22-year-old Um Rimas, said her greatest sorrow was that her parents couldn't see their grandchild. Speaking weakly after giving birth to her second child in Zaatari, she said, "Things are so difficult here. If I were back home, surrounded by family, I would feel different, but in this refugee camp I don't have a single relative."

Thu Giang

(According to Reuters)