By Steve Olweean | President and Program Director
The plight of Syrian refugees in Jordan and other countries hosting refugees is compounded by immense challenges to basic daily security and stability. Children and women make up the large majority of the refugee population, and are the most vulnerable to the threats and effects of refugee life both in the immediate and long term.
Our humanitarian service programs have reached many of these refugees to provide critical psychosocial treatment for trauma due to war and violence, and the devastating experience of profound loss on many levels resulting from being uprooted from their lives and communities, with uncertain futures. To help compensate for the significantly limited availability of mental health services in Jordan, where millions of refugees have languished for many years, our direct services have included equipping refugees with effective self-help skills, as well as supporting existing local social and educational services assisting them.
At the same time our professional psychosocial skills training programs increasingly equip a growing pool of local service providers, primarily made up of medical students and practitioners, with a spectrum of proven treatment skills to increase the local capacity for continuing and expanding on this treatment service, so that this vitally needed service is sustained into the future for this highly vulnerable, at-risk population.
The impact of the pandemic continues to pose additional challenges, as refugees typically have lower access to health care services in general in a country already struggling to meet the health care needs of it’s own citizens. Our pandemic related health care services include health guidance, monitoring, and education on prevention and mitigation of COVID infection, and where possible providing self-monitoring medical equipment such as no-contact thermometers, oximeters, blood pressure machines, masks, and COVID test. The benefit of our trainees being primarily medical students also allows us to use their medical skills to incorporate COVID related services in addition to psychosocial services to refugees.
The plight of Syrian refugees has continued for now for approaching 12 years, and the need for healing and recovery services to avoid carrying these unhealed wounds into the future of critically vulnerable refugee children and their families is a long term one requiring a firm commitment and investment in ensuring this needed humanitarian assistance continues. Unfortunately the pandemic has also resulted in a significant decline in services to refugees in Jordan due to many aid services being forced to reduce or discontinue operations in the country due to COVID related barriers over the last few years.
Our ability to keep providing these disaster health care program services in response to this ongoing and overwhelming humanitarian tragedy relies directly on the financial support of those who are drawn to supporting our efforts during this crisis by helping to cover the required direct out of pocket costs of doing so
We continue to appeal for the critical financial support of those who can donate the power of their money to the direct costs of our getting these services to those in such desperate need, and in time.
HOW YOU CAN HELP US MEET THIS NEW CHALLENGE AND MAINTAIN OUR LIFE-SAVING ASSISTANCE:
Feel free to contact Steve Olweean, SHC Program Director and IHPA President, with any questions or to share your feedback at: SOlweean@aol.com.
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By Steve Olweean | President and Program Director
By Steve Olweean | President and Program Director
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