Between aid dependence, neighbourhood solidarity and the EU-Jordan Compact: livelihood analysis of Syrian refugees in Greater Amman

or metaphoric photo and some details on its Facebook page and start collecting money. 2 The donors are from many different countries, not only from the Arab world. The organisation continuously announces cases for special donations and preserves some funds for emergency cases.3 Further teams are working for campaigns such as Ramadhan, winter assistance, and orphans. Some volunteers design and maintain the website, others post updates on social media. Most of the volunteers are Syrians. As the ten Syrian students of the initial team meanwhile have obtained their degrees, they are in a dilemma whether to stay with the Molham team or start their professional careers—a challenge as Syrians do not obtain work permits as engineers or medical doctors. One of the founders, for example, decided to stay with the Molham Volunteering Team and not to work as an architect, for which he got his degree in 2015. The commitment of the members in the office stems from their perception of an urgent need for medical services that are otherwise not available for Syrians. They see the primary value of their initiative in its independence and flexibility as nearly no bureaucracy is involved. There are no regulations that constrain aid distributions like in the big international NGOs, and the team is neither restricted to specific locations of refugees, age or gender of beneficiaries, or any other limiting factors. The team members emphasise that all volunteers respect Molham Volunteering Team’s agenda and are proud not to have to consider the agenda of any other organisation. To maintain their independence, the Molham team refuses to accept funds from international donors despite the high demand for medical assistance by the refugees (interviews with the founder and members of Molham Voluntary Team, Amman, between November 2016 and January 2017). 1 \ The NGO is also registered in France, Sweden and Canada but it does not have offices there. The homepage is available at https://molhamteam.com/ en/contact. 2 \ People usually donate via PayPal, but also via bank accounts and Western Union or directly in cash. The donors receive an e-mail stating the amount they paid. Each donation is anonymised and visible on the team’s homepage (Molham Volunteering Team, 2018). 3 \ The organisation has accounts in banks in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and France. Donations are sent to PayPal in France and from there, the money is directly transferred to hospitals that treat or enlist Syrians in need. The Molham team continuously has raised funds for cases in need and collected more than US $2.7 million between 2015 and early 2017. In 2018, it reached nearly US $9 million (Molham Volunteering Team, 2018). with a high degree of flexibility and according to their own rules. Therefore it is justified to consider these initiatives as a kind of social movement among middle-class Syrians and some (Palestinian) Jordanians that has sprung up to take assistance for the refugees in these groups’ own hands. LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF SYRIAN REFUGEES IN GREATER AMMAN \ E. GRAWERT 32 \ \ WORKING PAPER 4 \ 2019 Box 15 Foundation, funding and operations of an Islamic centre in Ain al-Basha The Islamic centre the research team visited in Ain al-Basha was founded in 2015 by a young Jordanian with Palestinian origin. His intention was to offer ‘appropriate support’ to Syrian refugee children, particularly, to Syrian orphans and children whose fathers are reported missing, and their mothers. ‘Appropriate support’ derives from the founder’s observation that “Syrian parents will not care much if their children are bullied at school, but they will care if they are not getting good marks” (Ain al-Basha, November 2016). Hence, he set up a project that aims to provide a place for psychological support for Syrian children who experience aggressiveness and segregation. At the same time, it functions as “a gate to religious education” (founder of the Islamic centre, Ain al-Basha, November 2016). The Islamic centre is located next to one of the Makani (‘my space’) centres run by UNICEF, which offer services and assistance to vulnerable groups in the communities. The Makani centres run programmes linking “interventions in education – learning support services; child protection—psychosocial support services; adolescent and youth participation—life skills and innovation labs (with) . health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services . (and) a community outreach component” (UNICEF, no year) and operate in all of the 12 Jordanian governorates as well as in the refugee camps. The Islamic centre, by contrast, focuses on the psychological needs of Syrian children and their mothers. It offers various kinds of sports and play activities, religious lessons, free drawing and painting, occasional excursions and competitions to develop children’s talents playfully. Religious education for Syrian children ususally takes place in Qur’an classes with competitions in learning the verses by heart or specialising on tajweed (a set of rules for proper pronunciation and recital of the Qur’an). The founder emphasises that his centre strictly avoids competitions in which the best Qur’an citers will receive a reward, as it is common in some other Islamic centres in Amman. The Islamic centre in Ain al-Basha also offers weekly Qur’an classes for Syrian women in cooperation with another neighbourhood initiative. Psychologists are hired for an honorarium to give courses tailored to the needs of female Syrian refugees; topics are, for example, the relationship between mother and son, or raising awareness among children of sexual harassment (interview by R. Alhomeimat with course participants and the founder of the Islamic Centre, Ain al-Basha, January 2017). By early 2017, 300 Syrian children had enrolled in the centre’s various activities. It had an additional 60 Syrian children in its free kindergarten. Many children still are on a waiting list. Although he is not professionally trained, the founder of the centre tries to comfort refugee children by allowing them to play freely and do sports and by talking to them one-to-one about their feelings and the problems they are facing at school, like bullying and racism. His main motivation is religious, as helping orphans in Islam is a good deed. According to him, the Syrian children under his care perform better at school than before. While the parents make their children go to public schools, they do not force them to visit the centre. The children enjoy spending time there and use its offers of their own accord (interviews with mothers of children at the Islamic centre, Ain al-Basha, between November 2016 and January 2017; author’s observations). Beyond activities for children and classes, the Islamic centre engages in creating small income opportunities for female Syrian refugees by buying them sewing or hairdressing equipment so that they can work from home. In another Islamic centre in al-Zarqa governorate, steps have been taken to establish a ‘productive collective kitchen’ where Syrian women cook together and gain some profit. From this profit, a portion is set aside to open new kitchens where more Syrian women can be employed. Such small jobs for women did not require a work permit (until 2018) and were tolerated by the Jordanian government. 1 According to the founder of the Islamic centre in Ain al-Basha, his concept and commitment attracted the interest of al-Rahma International, a long-established Kuwaiti charity organisation affiliated to the Social Reform Association (Eslah) (Kuwait News Agency, 2017). 2 A representative of al-Rahma had attended one of the Islamic centre’s charity events and acknowledged the high motivation, the familiarity of the founder with the local inhabitants and, in particular, his interaction with Syrian refugee children. Al-Rahma offered to raise funds for the Islamic centre and agreed not to interfere in the agenda of the founder, who first was concerned that the charity organisation would impose on him an agenda he would have to execute. Until the time of the author's interviews in early 2017, no interference had occurred, and funds were coming in in varying