A pillar of hope for the Middle East
With an estimated 1.4 million Syrian refugees, Jordan lies at the forefront of the refugee crisis. Many of those fleeing civil war in their homeland have made their way to Jordan’s capital, Amman; once there, many have been assisted by Al Waqa, an International Community Action Network (ICAN) centre established in east Amman in 2011 by Talal Qdah, MSW’02, a graduate of McGill’s internationally renowned ICAN program.
Al Waqa has focused its efforts on helping refugees understand and exercise their rights, and supporting women and children who have been victims of violence. “Much of our work with the Syrian refugee community, both with groups and individuals, is about defining abuse and helping people to identify it,” says Ibtisam Khasawneh, MSW’16. Al Waqa has been providing psychological counselling services and literacy programs to the growing Syrian refugee community.
Al Waqa is one of 11 ICAN centres in the Middle East; there are five more in the Palestinian territories and another five in Israel. More than 120,000 people benefit from the programs offered by the centres each year...” .