Every morning, 24-year-old Doha wakes up to new hope, a new chapter in the life she chose to have. She gets ready for work at the UNFPA-supported IRC Reproductive clinic at Azraq Camp as a volunteer. The first thing she does when she comes in is registering the beneficiaries, and then she prepares their files and takes them to the midwives at the Reproductive clinic before they get their checkups. Now, amid the coronavirus, Doha has even more tasks to do to ensure protective measures are in place, such as taking the patients’ temperatures, making sure their hands are sterilized, and they are at least two meters apart, to maintain social distancing; hence keeping COVID-19 at bay to the best of her ability.

Before arriving at Azraq refugee camp, located in a desert stretch of land, 85 km from the capital (Amman), Doha lived in Syria among her family. Still, the conflict there, along with the constant shelling, made her and her husband take a drastic decision to leave home and everything behind to head to Jordan for safety. 

To them, when Doha and her husband learned about moving to the Azraq refugee camp, it was uncharted waters for them. However, as always, Doha gathered her strength and treated every challenge as an opportunity. To make the best out of it, Doha couldn’t sit idle, so she searched her camp for a volunteering post, one that allows her to help out her community and ultimately has a purpose in life. She finally landed a volunteering position with IRC. 

 “At first, I wanted to study philosophy, but I could not complete my studies due to the airstrikes and shelling, and when it became impossible to tolerate such a situation, I left my studies, my family and everything, and my husband and I came to Jordan.” She added, “Now, I volunteer at the IRC reproductive health clinic in Azraq refugee camp, supported by UNFPA. What makes me proud as a volunteer with IRC is that we continue to provide this service to the largest number of beneficiaries even during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Doha has high hopes pinned on the future; she believes that children will have a b­­etter life than the one we have.

When she was asked to describe herself, she expressed, “I am a refugee and a health worker.”

Doha’s story is a true inspiration for many refugees trying to find hope and believe their circumstances don’t serve them much. Her willpower was able to change the way she was supposed to live, and that not only reflected on her personality and attitude but also made her a symbol of hope and positivity in the camp.