Jordan Archives

Care of the Military and Their Families Jordan 2022

UMR and Queen Rania Al Abdullah Association 2022

In the presence of UMR’s Jordan advisor Mr. Abdel Kadir Bani Omar, Ms. Alaa Ayoub, UMR’s head of office in Jordan signed an MoU to provide relief services and humanitarian aid to Military personnel and their families in Amman, Jordan. The goal of this MoU is to ensure that the humanitarian needs of military personnel and their family members are not neglected, no matter their current socioeconomic status.

UMR is proud to be providing support to those who served in Jordan and we will keep you in the loop as we begin providing services.

Jasmine Project

6.6 million people have had to flee from the civil war in Syria— almost half of them being women and children. Every part of their lives has changed a lot, but their roles in the community have changed the most. UMR has launched the “Jasmine Project” to empower these women.

As refugees, women have to serve as the main breadwinners and caretakers. They support themselves and their families without community support.

The majority of Syrian women in Jordan have skills in many things. Such as – handicrafts, clothes, school uniforms, soaps, and cosmetic creation and recycling.

Story of Fatima

Fatima* sought refuge in Jordan with her family in 2020. She tried looking for job opportunities. But unfortunately could not join the market due to government restrictions.

UMR has sensitized its network with the private sector, youth, and social entrepreneurs. All of us should work together to solve the social and economic problems that young women in Jordan face. UMR’s Jasmine Program empowers women financially through skills and business training.

UMR aims to teach women how to turn their abilities into marketable skills. This will allow them to survive and prosper. Fatima joined UMR’s Jasmine Project and is now the breadwinner of her family. She is the team leader for the project. She makes enough money each month to support her family. Besides, she helps other women like her.

Direct Impact

225 women will directly benefit from the Jasmine Project, aged 18-50. 80% of them are Syrians, and 20% are Jordanians from Amman.

Indirect Impact

1,125 family members of this project will benefit indirectly. Another 10,000 private and business Jasmine customers will also benefit.

In Future

Jasmine’s future goal is to build its participants’ capacity and accredit its courses. UMR also plans to teach them practical entrepreneurial skills to develop a website. Teach them e-marketing, and visit some international exhibitions so that they can promote Jasmine’s activities as a women-led company.

Jasmine’s training is not limited to community women. But also targets the youth in universities and schools during summer break. The goal is to teach them professional crafts and handicrafts.

You can also see

Jasmine Interview With Lara

Cataract & Hearing Aid Mission

Treatment of preventable blindness, like cataract and low vision, and deafness is one of the most effective ways to lift people out of poverty, especially for vulnerable communities like refugees living in makeshift environments.

Cataract Missions – Life with Blindness

Cataract accounts for 30%-50% of blindness in most African and Asian countries. Every dollar spent towards eliminating blindness and correcting vision in developing countries returns a four-fold on investment in economic terms. This places eliminating avoidable blindness among the most effective interventions available. Cataract surgeries are some of the most impactful on a person’s quality of life and require no follow up visits to a doctor.

Life With Hearing Loss and Deafness

Loss in hearing may result from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, the use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise, and aging.

Loss is hearing is defined as the ability to not hear as well as someone with normal hearing: hearting threshold of 25 dB or better in both ears. Hearing loss can affect one or both ears, causing difficulty to hear conversational speech or loud sounds.

Hard of hearing is defined as hearing loss ranging from mild to severe. Individuals who are hard of hearing communicate through spoken language and the use of hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices.

Deafness is profound hearing loss, which implies very little or no hearing in an individual. They often use sign language for communication.

60% of hearing loss is attributable to preventable causes, in children under the age of 15
1.1 billion individuals are at risk of hearing loss due to exposure to high noise – high risk for ages between 12–35 years
Over one third of people over 65 years of age are affected by disabling hearing loss – greater prevalence in South Asia, Asia Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa
The current production of hearing aids meets less than 10% of the worldwide need

UMR Interventions

Since 2016, UMR has been sending medical missions to places like Kenya, Jordan, and Bangladesh to perform cataract surgeries on patients in need. UMR has helped to restore the gift of sight to curable blind cases by providing quality medical care services to some of the most underprivileged including the elderly, disabled, refugees and vulnerable people in the community, many of whom live without any support from their relatives and governments. Under this initiative, in coordination with partner NGOs and Ministries of Health, over 1,000 cataract surgeries have been successfully performed free of cost to date thanks to our generous donors. Our surgeries have been 100% successful with no recurring complications, and cost as little as $100 per eye.

Hearing Aid in Palestine/Jordan

UMR established a partnership with Community Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled/ Gaza camp (CRCD) – UNRWA, which works to integrate persons with disabilities in their communities and to improve their living conditions. The center helped UMR by offering its local program team and through conducting the need assessment for the project. UMR also partnered with Phonak Jordan, which provided a generous discount on the hearing devices and performed all medical examinations, measurements, and modeling before the devices distribution. It offered 2 years of device maintenance and monitoring in Jordan.

UMR’s Hearing Aid project helps Palestinian refugees in Gaza/Jerash camp and Syrian refugees in random camps in Al-Mafraq who have no health benefits and social security number.

When thousands of people in a community suffer from health issues, it can be nearly impossible for a society to grow and become self-sustainable. At UMR, we believe that in order to improve the quality of life in a community, everyone must have access to primary healthcare. As we continue our mission to help beneficiaries, we will be providing free cataract surgeries and hearing aids to as many people as possible.

Pass The Plate

very year Muslims around the world observe the holy month of Ramadan by fasting from sunrise to sunset. Unfortunately for hundreds of thousands of families, they will not get the chance to spend this spiritual time in a warm home with nutritious food to break their fast. UMR has launched “Pass the Plate” campaign to support them.

“The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million globally last year – the highest number in the UN refugee agency’s almost 70 years of operations.” – UN

Refugees and displaced people are the most vulnerable people on the planet, suffering daily without sufficient housing, access to medicine, doctors, food, or clean water. As the crisis worsens, more and more people are depending on humanitarian agencies like UMR to fill the gaps.

Each year during Ramadan, UMR delivers food packages filled with nutritious items such as beans, rice, flour, oil, canned goods, and more to reach people that have absolutely nothing. We have spoken with families begging for help, telling our field staff that without these resources, they will die.

“Me and my children are fasting. What will we eat to break our fast? My children are begging me for food and water!”

This Ramadan, these families desperately need your help. Please #PassThePlate to a child in need!

Where We Are Working

Lebanon	Kenya
Jordan	Somalia
Yemen	Sudan
Palestine	Pakistan
Bangladesh	USA

What We Are Providing

We are providing many necessary items to the helpless families. Here are some of them-

Food Baskets

UMR delivers food packages containing items such as rice, flour, sugar, oil, beans, lentils, tomato paste, pasta, bread, and canned goods.

Water & Sanitation

In addition, we will be building water wells in Pakistan, Somalia and Kenya to ensure that some of the poorest communities are able to find clean drinking water, and prevent the spread of diseases.

Orphan Protection

Children are some of the most vulnerable among these already struggling communities. That is why UMR prioritizes the safety and well-being of children and orphans by providing them with healthcare, education, nutrition and a chance at a future.

Iftars

Each year UMR hosts iftar dinners throughout the month of Ramadan. Last year we were able to serve thousands of people in Yemen and Gaza with warm, nutritious meals.

Click Donate Now to See the different programs that you can donate to:

Medical Shipments

UMR boasts a strong medical gifts-in-kind supply chain. We work with private medical providers to procure medical supplies ranging from disposables such as gloves, bandages, and prescription medications to equipment critical to the success of a healthcare institution such as x-ray and ultrasound machines. This is a critical tool for capacity building of hospitals as it frees up monetary resources to hire new doctors and reduce the cost burden on patients.

UMR has provided medical shipments containing life-saving medicine and supplies to Yemen, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon, and continues to send containers to countries in need.

iFuture

More than 28,000 Palestinian refugees live in Irbid refugee camp, one of four camps established in Jordan as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The camp quickly became a new home to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who flee their homes due to the ongoing Syrian civil war. According to the FaFo report of 2013, about 31% of Palestine refugees in Irbid camp have an income below the national poverty line. Almost 80 Jordanian schools – most of them in the poor governorates (counties) in the north – have introduced two daily school sessions to cope with the influx of Syrians that have stretched Jordan’s public resources to breaking point, including health and education. Many are beginning to grumble about the strain on their hospitals and schools.

Dropouts and retention are on the rise between school children in Irbid camps. In addition to the socio-economic conditions that force families and children to resort to negative coping mechanisms like early marriage and mis-prioritizing work over education. Another significant challenge is the lack of introducing interpersonal and social skills to school children and refugees for the advancement of life skills and psychosocial growth.

UMR’s iFuture project aims to resolve challenges regarding education and the overall progress of the child’s social and intellectual health. UMR hopes to empower children by providing them with education, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills. UMR will use an electronic and digital platform (Electronic Library) for teaching students who each one of them will have his/her tablet to access online lessons designed by the community coaches.

UMR designed iFuture in line with the Sustainable Development Goal.4: To ensure inclusive, equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all and the MoE strategic plan for lifelong learning and non-formal education.

The project targets 100 orphan children (50% girls and 50% boys, 30% Syrians and 70% Jordanians-Palestinians, aged 7-16) 20% of them are dropped out of schools to join the market, and 80% have poor school performance due to socio-economic conditions. Therefore, financial support will be provided to refugee families with monthly cash assistance for 12 months to accommodate school and life cost challenges. To sustain the project, UMR will link families with other financial assistance systems through its cooperation with UNHCR, UNRWA and MoSD, and INGOs in Irbid. UMR will provide children with mentors, psychosocial and awareness sessions, sports, games, and other activities to help the physical and mental development of a child.

[1] http://www.dpa.gov.jo/page.php?85-85

[2]https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/jordan/irbid-camp

Psychosocial Support (PSS)

UMR seeks to provide a wraparound program for children and their families who are affected by conflict. Our Psycho-Social Support (PSS) and Child-Friendly Space initiatives give refugee women and children coping mechanisms to mitigate trauma while increasing critical thinking skills among children, especially younger ones, violence reduction among peers, and greater connectivity and comfort with their host community at large. The UMR Jordan PSS team supports children by listening to them, providing them with a safe space and atmosphere to express their feelings and work through the pain, consequently, transforming their negative emotions into something productive. The PSS project also emphasizes the importance of strengthening their social environment, which has a great effect on the beneficiaries’ psychological health and development on various levels; with the family, community, and the beneficiaries themselves.

The UMR Jordan PSS team has also adopted “We Love Reading”- an informal education curriculum designed for children who have experienced education disruption due to conflict. Refugees who do attend regular schooling are often victims of bullying which increases social isolation and can exacerbate mental trauma. “We Love Reading” is designed to teach young children literacy skills, introduce critical thinking through play therapy, and cultivate an early thirst for education that can carry forward when formal schooling options become available.

The program also provides awareness sessions, for topics such as sexual harassment, bullying, hygiene, emotional intelligence-EI, ethics, counseling, and psychotherapy sessions (PTSD, and Psychiatric Disturbance) in order to help them cope with their environment and society.

UMR Jordan initially:

Assesses the social, financial, mental and physical health condition of a family; women and children (age 6-18), through house visits
Studies and evaluates the situation of children and women according to their age, social, mental, and emotional needs, in addition to their social environment statuses, for the enrollment of UMR’s specialized PSS programs
Builds up the entire program that properly fits their needs. It is usually divided into 4-6 awareness and counseling sessions and at least 12 sessions for psychotherapy

This is an ongoing program. Since its inception in 2016, 104 teenagers 13-18 years old, have attended the PSS activities designed to help them positively express their emotions, cultivate positive parent-child relations, find productive hobbies, and reduction of physical and emotional aggression towards themselves and others.

694 children between 5 and 12 years old attended PSS activities and been engaged in play therapy designed to help them express their feelings and build their self-esteem. They also discover appropriate behaviors when interfacing with parents, siblings, teachers, and elderly people to rebuild communal connections often lost to refugees.

Cataract Missions: Vision 2020

UMR successfully conducted over 1,000 cataract surgeries. Help us reach 5,000 new patients by the end of 2020

Key Facts & Figures:

Cataract accounts for 30%-50% of blindness in most African and Asian countries.
Every dollar spent towards eliminating blindness and correcting vision in developing countries returns a four-fold on investment in economic terms. This places eliminating avoidable blindness among the most effective interventions available.
Cataract surgeries are some of the most impactful on a person’s quality of life and require no follow up visits to a doctor.

Overview:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) cataract is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment worldwide, accounting for nearly 20 million cases with nearly 5 million new cases each year. The majority of people with cataracts are found in the developing world due to a lack of access to adequate healthcare facilities or, more often, a lack of ability to afford this low-cost surgery. Most treated cases need as little as 15 minutes, and even though cataract operations have virtually no recovery time, the number of people with preventable blindness continues to grow.

UMR is putting extraordinary effort to reverse this alarming trend through its Vision 2020 campaign

I want to thank all of you for donating to this campaign as I have been blind for 6 years. My right eye was damaged by a rock when I was digging a well and now my only eye that was working has been slowly losing sight from cataracts… Soloman (70 years old)

Project Objective:

To restore eyesight to 5,000 people in Jordan and Kenya with cataract by the end of 2020. In addition to cataract surgery, UMR will provide eye exams, glasses and other rehabilitation needed for refugees and others who cannot afford the cost of these medical care services and procedures.

Our Impact:

Treatment of preventable blindness, like cataract and low vision, is one of the most effective ways to lift people out of poverty, especially for vulnerable communities like refugees living in makeshift environments. They regain their independence and confidence to approach economic opportunities and education. UMR and partners have restored eyesight to people who thought they would never be able to see again. We need to continue this work. There are thousands of people out there in great need of hope, and a chance to see again.

Ramadan 2020

UMR has many programs that help people get food throughout the year. But we pay extra attention to religious events like Ramadan and Qurbani celebrations. We have launched many activities in Ramadan 2020 in various countries. By which we provide respectful and culturally appropriate food. Nutritious food from our Qurbani and Ramadan programs reduces poverty and malnutrition. It overcomes refugee, displaced, and marginalized community access and social equality barriers.

Here are some of our activities of Ramadan 2020

YEMEN

On May 14, 2020, UMR distributed 100 food parcels to the most vulnerable families in Hudaidah, Yemen. A UMR representative explained that “people were crying from happiness.” UMR has been working in Yemen for years. We want to build bakeries to give free bread to people. Our goal is to improve the quality of life in Yemen by giving orphans the care they need. As donations continue, we will distribute as many food packages as possible.

LEBANON

UMR has been working as fast as possible to deliver life-saving food aid in Lebanon. Last week, we distributed 211 packages in the Palestinian Badawi camp in Tripoli. In the next three days, distributions will take place in the poorest villages of Tripoli. We already know that the state of the economy in Lebanon has put thousands of people in poverty. While we have begun to ease their suffering. But there is a lot more to be done.

JORDAN

UMR and @all4jor distributed 500 food parcels to the most vulnerable families in the country. Jerash, Amman, Zarqa, Jordan Valley, Marka, and Madaba will receive 500 food packs this week.

USA

UMR has provided over five hundred grocery bags’ worth of food to low-income families throughout the United States. Volunteers in Philadelphia, PA and groups like the YMCA in Dallas, TX and Arlington, VA worked together to give people groceries. There is cooking oil, fresh bread, fruits, vegetables, pasta, sauce, and canned vegetables.

Umrelief Ramadan campaign supplies in 2020

Wehdat Disability Center

The primary objective of the Wehdat Disability Center is to train and rehabilitate male and female Palestinian refugee youth with disabilities in Amman, Jordan on a number of skills (self-care, cognitive, social, academic, vocational training) to integrate them into society and empower them to be able to support themselves in their daily life and also find some jobs. The Wehdat Disability Center serves 107 people and the waiting list has exceeded 330.

The mission of the Center is to foster independence and self-reliance for people with minor to moderate disabilities. Services provided for Al-Hajah’s clients include academic and vocational support to allow for economic integration into their host country of Jordan and workshops on development of social and life skills to increase self-sufficiency.

Applicants to the program undergo a rigorous process that includes an interview, home visit, and physical assessment. Based on assessment results, clients are presented with a work plan and curriculum tailored to their individual needs through wraparound service in: non-formal education, skills building workshops on self-sufficiency and self-care, physiotherapy, nursing. Meals, and transportation from the client’s home to site of service are also included. UMR will focus on vocational training, skills building workshops, and non-formal education.

Vocational workshops include: handcrafts, weaving, cleaning, and carpentry

Life skills workshops include: hygiene, setting a routine, cooking, and ironing

Jordan