Jordan GVs

Music

00:00

BROWN: It takes decades, even centuries, for cities to take shape, to develop their spirit and rhythm and place in the world.

00:06

Series of shots of development of Zaatari

This city was born in days, grew in months and two years on it's a genuine bustling metropolis of 100,000. 

00:14

Brown walks through camp

Its architects will tell you it's temporary. Its occupants will tell you it's now home.

00:25

Zaatari GVs

The old one is a disastrous mess and no one knows when it may be home again. So they're building their lives, raising their children, trying to make a living here in a place they call "Zaatari" - a city in the sand. 

00:32

Music

00:47

Samar and Abu Diaa cook and share meal with family

BROWN: The Hariri family was among the first to arrive. Samar and Abu Diaa fled here with their four children, 24 year old Diaa, 22 year old Mohammad, 20 year old Ragda and 12 year old Dina. 

00:56

Abu Diaa

ABU DIAA: "Sometimes I give them hope and at other times they inspire me".

01:24

Family walk through camp

BROWN: This ordinary, middle class family has been shattered by the Syrian civil war. They're now doing what they can to heal and rebuild their lives here. As they do, they become an integral part of the fabric of this place. Just like everyone else. 

01:27

Music

01:50

Abu Dia and Samar at home. Abu Diaa lights cigarette

BROWN:  Back in Syria, Abu Diaa worked for the Department of Education and Samar was the principal of a primary school. 

01:57

SAMAR: [as Abu Diaa lights a cigarette] "See how you're coughing. I swear the smoking is bad for you".

02:09

BROWN: Theirs is a partnership that has defied the odds. Abu Diaa loved Samar so much he went against his parents' wishes to marry her.

02:16

SAMAR: "We have been there for each other since the beginning. Through thick or thin.

02:27

Samar

He is my other half. Thanks be to God. What can I say? Without him I would die in this camp". [upset]

02:33

Abu Diaa puts on coat and walks with son

ABU DIAA: "I don't want to praise myself but in Syria I was a witty guy. We had a really good social life. Three of the kids were in university studying architecture, physics and engineering. I owned three cars. We had a water well in our garden, an olive grove, grapevines, land. I was happy at work and full of hope". 

02:47

Abu Diaa collects bread ration

Music

03:23

BROWN: Life in Zaatari is a marked contrast. Here, Abu Diaa has to get in early to get the family's daily ration of bread from the World Food Program and taking handouts is not his style. 

03:29

Abu Diaa lights cigarette

ABU DIAA: "You ask yourself, why is this happening to me?

03:49

Abu Diaa

A person who always had dignity now had none. This causes me a lot of pain". 

03:54

Abu Diaa and son walk

DINA: "My mum and dad would do anything to make us happy.

04:03

Dina

Even for example, the food - if there wasn't enough they won't eat, so we aren't the ones to go hungry".

04:11

Abu Diaa at barber's

BROWN: The Hariris left Syria after Abu Diaa and his eldest son were among the many imprisoned and tortured by the government of Bashar al Assad. 

04:21

ABU DIAA: "It was indescribable fear, I can't describe the feeling. You're thinking maybe they will come for us now - or maybe they will come later. We left because the situation became unbearable. You no longer knew where the bombs were going to fall or if they will hit you.

04:35

Abu Diaa

Two of my brothers were killed while out in the fields. The army came and shot them in front of me". 

04:56

Abu Diaa at barber's

BROWN: Many who fled thought the war wouldn't last long and that the government would soon fall.

05:04

Dina watches TV

DINA: "Before we left, we said we will stay ten or fifteen days,

05:15

Dina

maybe one month at the most.

05:18

Zaatari camp

We didn't expect a long stay here". 

05:22

Music

05:25

Refugees arriving at camp. Super: UNICEF Vision

BROWN: But what the Hariris thought might be ten days away from home has turned into two years and they've now become just one family amongst 2.8 million Syrian refugees. It's the worst refugee crisis the world has seen in over 20 years.

05:31

Jordan is currently hosting 600,000 Syrians, Lebanon over one million, Turkey 750,000 and Iraq 200,000. 

SAMAR: "I always heard the word refugee but I never imagined I would be one.

05:53

Samar

I heard of Palestinian refugees, Iraqi refugees - but for me to be one? I could never imagine it until it happened". 

06:17

Refugee family arriving at camp

BROWN: And they keep coming. This man and his children are among 361 people who have just arrived at Zaatari.

06:25

SYRIAN MAN: "The road was bumpy, exhausting and tortuous. We were afraid, yes. We drove the cars at night, in the dark -

06:39

Syrian Man

otherwise the army would see a light and would attack us. Some cars in our convoy were hit in front of us and behind us.

06:52

Syrian man with family

One of our children, a little girl, almost died on the way over but thank God we've arrived here and we are safe".

07:00

Baby

BROWN: There are so many emotions in this room. People are fearful. People are relieved to be here.

07:11

Brown to camera

It's also dawning on them that they're becoming one of millions of refugees.... that they're losing their identity. The people who they once were not so long ago just don't exist any more. It's a whole new world that they are about to enter. 

07:19

Zaatari camp

Music

07:38

Kleinschmidt walking through camp/Greets residents

BROWN:  Zaatari camp is run by Kilian Kleinschmidt - a United Nations veteran of crises in the Balkans and Africa who's clocked up 25 years in the humanitarian aid business.

07:49

Before he took charge last year there were frequent stone throwing protests and even riots in the camp.

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "It was a sort of an environment of violence, a culture of violence, a culture of discussing things with stones.

08:06

Kleinschmidt. Super:
Kilian Kleinschmidt
UNHCR

They didn't know what was the plan for the next day even or the next week. So there was no level of exchange, no transparency".

08:24

Kleinschmidt with UNHCR Translator/Man arrives and greets family

BROWN: But this no-nonsense German has turned that around. And in this camp, you never know what you might come across.

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "After how long you are visiting your family?"

TRANSLATOR: "He hasn't seen them for a year and ten days".

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "Really? Oh welcome, welcome".

08:34

Young man with UNHCR Translator

BROWN: This young man just heard about an attack back home in Syria.

09:00

SYRIAN MAN: "A barrel bomb fell on the house".

09:06

TRANSLATOR: "He's saying people today in the village he's from were slaughtered".

09:09

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "Really? I'm sorry to hear, sorry".

09:14

Kleinschmidt with translator and man

"When we hear these types of stories, we understand that maybe we have to rebuild a lot more than we thought. Not treating a hundred thousand people as hundred thousand times the same thing, but a hundred thousand people as a hundred thousand stories, as a hundred thousand individuals who have to rebuild themselves.

09:16

Kleinschmidt

Who have to rebuild their strength, their resilience, and actually begin to have some hope again that there will be something better ahead of them".

09:41

Photos. Hariri family

Music

09:51

BROWN: It's hard to imagine how much the Hariris' life has changed over the past few years.

10:01

Abu

ABU DIAA: "No matter how long you're away, it's impossible to forget your home.

10:08

Photos. Hariri family

ABU DIAA:  It took me 15 years to build the house. Every flower has a story. Every tree has a story".

10:13

Hariris' compound in camp

BROWN: Abu Diaa is trying to recreate a sense of home here and to do that, he's scraped together cash to buy some additional demountables from camp dealers and build the family a tiny compound.

10:25

Abu Diaa show compound to Brown

ABU DIAA: "This is the first room we received from the UNHCR. After five months living in a tent we received this". 

10:42

BROWN: Around the courtyard, there's a bedroom for each of his two married sons, a kitchen and a bathroom. 

10:52

Abu Diaa in kitchen

SAMAR: "Abu Diaa is doing his best - using all his energy to try and make it feel like it was in Syria.

11:02

Samar

Sometimes I'm upset when there's all the dust, I sit down and cry because I've worked so hard to make it clean. I tell him I want to go back to Syria, I can't take it anymore. He tells me it'll be ok". 

11:13

Abu Diaa and Samar at clothesline

BROWN: However, all that Abu Diaa has achieved is actually against the rules. The Jordanian government is adamant this camp is just a temporary solution.

11:23

Camp shots

Syrians are not allowed to leave the camp unless they're bailed out or need special medical treatment.

11:35

Demountables arrive on trucks

At the same time, the buying and selling of these demountables is forbidden and refugees are banned from bringing concrete and building materials into Zaatari.

11:42

But when you're in a fight to survive, rules are made to be broken and as the weeks have turned into years, each family has done what it can to get ahead - because as much as it hurts to admit, for now, this is home. 

11:56

Policeman to crowd

POLICEMAN: [telling the crowd] "Go back. I'm going to go down the list. This is how it's going to be and there's no alternative. I'm not making humanitarian exemptions - or anything else. Do you get it? Or I'll take the caravans and leave! That's all I know".

12:21

Unloading demountables

BROWN: These portable shelters like Abu Diaa's have become the camp's most prized possessions and there are always arguments over who gets one and why.

12:35

Argument over demountable

SYRIAN MAN YELLING: "My mother didn't even get one yet. Nor this man!"

12:48

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "You have to understand, when you lose everything you have lost of course your home, you have lost most of your belongings. You can't take things with you. You have lost your identity quite often, you have no photos any more, you have no... everything is gone. So

12:54

Kleinschmidt

this feeling of me I have to protect myself becomes even more important in this context than it would be for you and me. For them to be able to say no, this is mine now, counts much more than anything".

13:10

Man arguing with aid worker

SYRIAN MAN ARGUING: "So what do you think is the solution then? 

AID WORKER: "The solution is to wait for God to ease your situation - because you have a caravan. Do you understand?"

SYRIAN MAN ARGUING: "I cook in it and I sleep in it, but I need another one. My son's wife is mentally ill".

13:25

Men in demountable/Camp GVs

Music

13:43

Shops in camp

BROWN: While the United Nations has attempted to manage and control Zaatari camp, it really has developed a life of its own. A complex little city has emerged out of the desert with shops and people offering all manner of services. The French military who helped out here in the early days, dubbed the main street the ‘Champs Elysees'. 

14:01

Butcher/Shawarma stall/Bakery

Music

14:25

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "It is unbelievable how fast they have gone within not even two years of the existence of this camp in setting up their homes and setting up shops and setting up some new, some form of a new life.

14:33

Kleinschmidt. Super:
Kilian Kleinschmidt
UNHCR

It's amazing and so they do what we may have seen in other places coming over twenty years, coming over ten years. I mean it's a very fast process".

14:51

Mohammad's bakery

BROWN: In the middle of the Champs Elysees, Abu Diaa's brother, Mohammad, and his cousin have set up a bakery. They're busy preparing popular Arabic fare like man'ousheh, a type of pizza.

15:02

Abu Diaa with Akram

The business is especially important because the cash it generates helps look after the whole extended family, among them the children of Abu Diaa's dead brother. Three year old Akram is one of the nephews he now helps provide for.

15:18

Making man'ousheh

ABU DIAA: "Without this they wouldn't have anything. You need to make a living. It's not easy, so we must work. 

15:35

Brown with Abu Diaa and male relatives

This is a school student, my nephew. He's just finished school and he's come straight here".

15:44

Making man'ousheh

BROWN: These people in Zaatari don't like begging for aid and don't want to have to rely on the world's donations. They want to be self-sufficient,

15:55

Kleinschmidt walks through camp

but their entrepreneurial, can-do attitude can also be a major headache.

16:05

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "That one is completely dismantled now, dysfunctional".

BROWN: Kilian Kleinschmidt sometimes finds that toilet blocks disappear overnight, the bricks taken and diverted to some other, private use.

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "The bricks, the blocks are gone.

16:11

Kleinschmidt beside newly built house

They are coming from a public toilet and have now been built into this very impressive house, the question is shall we get it back or not? And of course the answer's no. I'm thinking about sixty buildings which have disappeared and this is how they use the materials".

16:27

Kleinschmidt walking through camp to water tanks

BROWN: Residents are also hooking up their own pipes to public water tanks. Kilian thinks the people here might charge others a fee to use the water they siphon off, but it's always hard to get to the bottom of what's going on.

16:51

TRANSLATOR: "He says that everybody shares these pipes that are here so whoever brings containers they can fill up the water. I asked them if anybody pays for anything, he said no for sure".

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "Sure? Sure? No money? Okay very nice to meet you".

17:05

MAN: "We thank you for your efforts".

TRANSLATOR: "He says thank you for your efforts". 

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "Which efforts? You're doing everything".

17:19

Argument by water truck

BROWN: With 100,000 people camped out in the middle of a dusty desert, you can understand why water is a source of constant argument and trouble and Abu Diaa's street is no exception.

17:25

WATER TANK MAN: "Don't film. Stop filming or I'll break the camera!"

17:41

BROWN: Like many refugees who've been here for a long time, Abu Diaa can afford to have his own water tank but with so much tension in the air, there's no guarantee it will get filled. 

17:47

WATER TANK MAN: [yelling] "Hey! Don't film".

17:58

BROWN: Meanwhile new arrivals at the camp have to fight it out at the public water tanks. 

18:02

WATER TANK MAN: "If someone comes over here, then watch out! Can't you see how the water's been wasted on the ground! Do you want it on the ground or do you want me to fill the tanks?"

18:09

Brown to camera by water truck

BROWN: The experts have worked out the bare minimum amount of water that someone needs in a humanitarian crisis and supposedly the people here in Zaatari are getting double that amount. But it's still a massive source of tension. There are fights about it every day, arguments. We've seen them, up and down these streets,

18:21

Women filling water bottles

and the people here are desperately trying to rebuild normal lives on the edge of a parched desert.

18:42

Man

MAN ON STREET: "You can see they fill half the tank and then they go, because people are stealing from the back of the truck. And I want to hit them because now the tank is only half full". 

18:50

Water filling bucket

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "That is now the new big issue. As we move into the summer soon we can only predict that it's going to get worse

19:00

Kleinschmidt

and so we'd better find ways of a more equitable access to water for everyone".

19:09

Tarek scales electricity pole

BROWN: The ingenuity of the Syrians is pretty impressive. Abu Diaa's brother-in-law Tarek, has helped connect their home to the camp's electricity supply and he sometimes stops by to make the odd repair. 

19:20

Tarek and Abu Diaa

TAREK: "I've put it in through the back".

ABU DIAA: "So it's a shared line?"

TAREK: "There are two lines - one of the house and one for the kitchen".

19:43

Tarek connects electricity

BROWN: Tarek and others like him have built much of the camp's electrical grid. The trouble is, it's all completely illegal - another case where those in charge have been forced to adapt, just as the refugees have.

19:50

Electric wire through camp

KILIAN KLEINSCHMIDT: "So our electricity bill is right now in the range of about $750,000 US dollars a month. 

20:04

Kleinschmidt

and about 85% or so of this is being illegally taken from the public lighting system"

20:11

Samar crochets

BROWN: Despite all that Samar and Abu Diaa have managed to scrape together for their children, there is one crucial element missing. 

SAMAR: "Some people might be jealous of each other because of food or clothes, but my family is jealous for education.

20:19

Samar

It was extremely important to me that my children receive an education. I used to stay up late with them and help them tirelessly because I'm convinced that education is the core of life". 

20:39

Ragda paints on wall

Music

20:49

BROWN: The day the Hariris fled their homeland was the same day Abu Diaa's 20 year old daughter Ragda was supposed to begin her architecture degree at Damascus University".

20:59

Abu Diaa watches Ragda pain

Music

21:10

Ragda

RAGDA: "I like to draw buildings - it's my favourite. It was my dream, but now it's lost".

21:15

Ragda paints on wall

BROWN: When the family first got to Jordan, Abu Diaa and Samar desperately tried to ensure their three eldest children could continue with university. 

21:24

Samar

SAMAR: "They carried their bags and ran away from the camp. Our goal was to reach Amman and a university.

21:40

Ragda paints on wall

We were putting everything at risk for the sake of their education". 

21:47

BROWN: In the end though it came down to one simple thing.

SAMAR: "In Jordan, Syrians are not allowed to go to university without paying.

21:55

Samar

You have to have money. And we can't afford it. Like all the other people in the camp".

22:05

Camp school children/Samar walks to school

22:15

BROWN: The fate of Syria's kids is a question Samar confronts each day. She's a teacher at one of the camp's schools established with a donation from Bahrain. 

22:20

Samar in classroom

SAMAR: "What's this?"

CLASS: "An abacus!"

22:34

BROWN: In this classroom Samar is determined to give the kids the best opportunities she can.

22:43

SAMAR: [holds child while she writes on the board] "Correct! A clap for her."

22:57

BROWN: They are plagued by diseases like hepatitis and scabies, the classes are terribly overcrowded and some lack the basics, like pens and pencils.

23:06

Haya in classroom

The biggest challenge however lies with those, like the newest arrival Haya. 

SAMAR: "I called her to me and I hugged her, and asked her who she came with.

23:20

Samar

She said she came with her father, who was wounded in his leg and hand and her mother was killed by a shell in Syria". 

23:30

Classroom

BROWN: It's a reminder that nearly everyone you meet in this camp, from young to old, has been witness to unspeakable horrors.

SAMAR: "God willing, I hope I can provide her with a part of what a mother can provide... even just a small amount. 

23:41

Abu Diaa walks with men as part of wedding celebration

Music

24:03

BROWN: In two short years, on a remote patch of sand, tens of thousands of frightened, scarred people have become a functioning, intertwined community.

24:10

Men dance

[Drum music]

24:21

BROWN:  Profound friendships have been forged. Every now and then love blossoms and a makeshift camp becomes a makeshift function centre. 

24:25

[Drum music/men sing]

24:35

BROWN: Abu Diaa's cousin, Mahmoud has flown in from Dubai to get married here. While the bride-to-be is getting ready, it's time for the men to dance. 

24:40

[Wedding music]

24:54

ABU DIAA: "This is a small scale wedding - just to try and have some fun".

24:57

BROWN: It's not a picture perfect spot in their homeland Syria, but Mahmoud and his wife will never forget this wedding venue, a place of survival and hope.

25:08

So for now, for everyone here, this is home - even if it is haunted by memories of the other. 

25:22

GVs around camp

ABU DIAA: "This is a difficult situation. No matter how you talk about it, it's the toughest thing you will ever face in your life.

25:31

Abu Diaa

We are not begging or asking for help. We just want them to stop the oppression by spreading the truth - for the sake of the Syrian children who have lost their education and lost everything".

25:41

Family preparing soil for grape vines/Samar at clothesline

Music

26:01

BROWN: It's a family that refuses to be defeated. As the weather heats up, they're planting grape vines out the back. Testimony to a sort of courage and doggedness that's impossible not to admire.

26:16

SAMAR: "We are trying to get back on our feet. God willing, life is not about to end.

26:34

Samar

The future is ahead of us. We will renew ourselves and stand tall".

26:44

Hariri family smile

Music

26:50

Credits

Reporter: Matt Brown
Producer: Sophie McNeill
Camera: Mathew Marsic
Editor: Nicholas Brenner
Research: Wjd Dhnie

27:07