Souf, Jerash camps send aid to displaced Syrians across Jordan border

JERASH — Residents of the Souf and Jerash Palestinian refugee camps sent two trucks on Tuesday laden with humanitarian aid to Syrians displaced in the areas across the border with Jordan.

The camps’ administrators said refugees, though in need of assistance themselves, “rushed to help their brothers out of solidarity”. They said that some of them even donated half of the few things they have.

Since the start of the Syrian government’s bombardment campaign on rebel-held parts of the southern Daraa provice, [on June 18], Jordanians across the Kingdom rushed to collect donations to help the Syrians who had left their homes. 

Residents of the two camps filled the trucks with collected foodstuffs that were then sent to the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation’s (JHCO) storage facility in Mafraq, said the head of the Jerash camp, Odeh Abu Hussein, in an interview with The Jordan Times on Wednesday. 

“The committee [formed to gather the donations] collected only foodstuffs that do not need to be cooked as the stranded Syrian brothers do not have any cooking equipment,” said Abu Hussein.

The residents of the Souf Palestinian refugee camp collected canned food, dates, water bottles and blankets, according to Abdul Muhsin Banat, head of the camp’s committee.

“We share the Jordanian cities’ and villages’ responsibility to help our brotherly neighbours across the border,” said Banat.

Upon arriving in Mafraq, the donations were almost refused because JHCO’s storage has reached its maximum capacity, but they were eventually accepted because they were deemed “more useful for the displaced Syrians than some other donations [as ready to eat]”.

Abu Hussein noted that all residents were very keen to contribute in the philanthropy campaign and provided anything they could.

“One of the residents had one bag of child formula milk, he gave away half of it,” according to Abu Huessien.

Jerash Camp, also known as Gaza Camp, has also participated in sending aid to Iraq in 1990, according to Abu Hussein.

According to the two officials, 30,000 and 18,000 refugees live in the Jerash and Souf camps, respectively. The two camps were established in 1968, following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.