Azraq Camp: Visit Five

April 2018 saw our fifth visit to Azraq camp; we seemed to have gotten better at some things, but the conditions there were always producing potential problems.

The airbase next to where we stay seems much busier these days. Apart from that, the only thing that’s changed at the camp is the increasing desire for change.

While Zatari Camp has gone through quite substantial transformations, including the caravans and tents shifting to a more traditionally Syrian Home structure, featuring patios and semi-public spaces, Azraq has seen no substantial changes to its rigid grid and separated villages.

We saw an opportunity to do something more organic with a large space in the centre of the camp. Inspired by the diagonal lines of the camp’s informal walkways, we began drawing a giant mosaic. We were hoping it would large enough so as to be visible on Google earth — and also that people would enjoy walking long distances more if they could meander over beautiful shapes and colours.

Catherine has continued to generate interest in a guided conversation system directed at isolated women. Hope Circles create a safe environment where women are able to begin to process the traumas and fears left by war.

This is not an idea that we would ever want to force from the ‘top’. Instead, the idea is to position ‘Hope Circles’ in such a way that they are adopted by our partners in the camp as a natural step and become a positive, community-based force for healing.