The mobility to Jordan was held from 22-28 February 2020.

The first day of the mobility was held at the German Jordanian University, where Professor Christine Hildebrandt, the head of the social work department, did the opening speech and welcomed the HED group to Jordan and GJU.

The HED group started their first lecture by Dr. Sahar Makhamreh, who addressed the Jordanian situation regarding health, education and gender as well as the role of social work in the refugee context. After that, Dr. Bader Al Madi explained the political situation for refugees in Jordan. Then Mrs. Lisa Mends gave an explanation to the HED group about Gender, Health and Education goals in the SDGs and how they are related to the migration context. And the last lecture addressed the empowerment of refugee women and girls facing trauma by Dr. Ayat Nashwan. After the lectures, the HED group had their first reflection on the expectations of the project.

The second day of the Mobility was dedicated to preparing the HED group to write and prepare their research projects. Mrs. Lisa Mends and Ms. Aimee Ghanem gave the group a half-day workshop on how to choose their questions, define a research problem and how to start writing their academic papers. In the afternoon, the students practiced what they have learned in this workshop. After that, they moved to Kawon bookshop in Madaba to reflect about what they have learned on the second day and how to proceed with their research topics.

On the third day, the HED group conducted field visits in Amman. They visited a branch of Noor al Hussain Foundation called the Family Health institution; it is the branch that manages the health clinic, the child development clinic, and the psychological clinic; those clinics serve refugees and vulnerable groups in the north of Jordan. Dr. Sarah Al Etan and Dr. Hussain al Salem gave the HED group a tour on the premises explaining all the services that they have and answering all the HED group questions.  Following, the group moved to one of MAKANI projects in the east of Amman, to learn more about the informal education that UNICEF offers for refugees and vulnerable groups. Later at UNICEF's main office in Amman, Mr. Kenan Madi gave the group an insight into the informal education services that they provide for vulnerable groups in Jordan and how they implement the sustainable development goals in Jordan as a branch of UN agencies.

On the 26th of February, the HED group moved to Irbid to conduct two field visits, The first visit was to Caritas Irbid were the HED group learned more about how Caritas helps refugees and vulnerable groups in education and health sectors, the HED group had a visit to their clinic and were introduced to their early childhood program in addition to a presentation to explain more about the services that they have.  Afterward the HED group moved to the Jordanian Women Union, where they met with the legal advisor and the caseworker, who explained the role that their union plays in advocating for women in Jordan, how they deal with GBV cases, how they work as mediators in family disputes and finally how their union plays a role in changing and amending laws to ensure that these laws are compatible with the global human rights and the rights of women in particular. Then the group reflected on the two days field visits.

On the final day of the project week, the HED group made the evaluation of the mobility and shared their inputs and opinions about the whole mobility and their personal experience. The program was concluded with a visit to Mount Nebo and the church close to Madaba and dinner at the Dead Sea Panorama.

 

 

Welcome and introduction at GJU (Photo: Farah Al Hamouri)
Welcome and introduction at GJU (Photo: Farah Al Hamouri)
Lecture of Dr. Bader Al Madi about the political situation of refugees in Jordan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Lecture of Dr. Bader Al Madi about the political situation of refugees in Jordan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Lecture of Dr. Sahar Al Makhamreh about health, education and gender in Jordan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Lecture of Dr. Sahar Al Makhamreh about health, education and gender in Jordan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Group picture at Kawon bookstore in Madaba (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Group picture at Kawon bookstore in Madaba (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at the Family Health Centre of Nour Al Houssein Foundation (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at the Family Health Centre of Nour Al Houssein Foundation (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Reflection round to discuss impressions, opinions and perspectives (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Reflection round to discuss impressions, opinions and perspectives (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Workshop on scientific writing and research (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Workshop on scientific writing and research (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Discussion of students' research topics (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Discussion of students' research topics (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at UNICEF headquarters in Amman (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at UNICEF headquarters in Amman (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at MAKANI project offering informal education services (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at MAKANI project offering informal education services (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at Caritas Irbed running health and education projects (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visit at Caritas Irbed running health and education projects (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visiting Yarmouk University in Irbed (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visiting Yarmouk University in Irbed (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visiting the Jordanian Women Union in Irbed (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Visiting the Jordanian Women Union in Irbed (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Trip to the Dead Sea Panorama as a final program activity (Photo: Christine Hildebrandt)
Trip to the Dead Sea Panorama as a final program activity (Photo: Christine Hildebrandt)
 

Due to the corona pandemic and the related travel restrictions, the project mobility did not take place from June 15th to 20th, 2020 in Würzburg (Germany), but as an online program.

The HED project group met in online video meetings to listen to lectures by various experts, to exchange ideas within the group and to continue working on the research projects of the students.

At the beginning there was an introduction to the German migration system and the German migration society. The various migration movements in Germany after 1945 as well as current concepts and systems in today's migration society were explained. Furthermore, the students presented their project topics and their current state of research to the project team, input was given on the subject of qualitative research and the further procedure for the small studies was discussed.

In addition, there were a number of lectures given by experts from the fields of health, education and gender, who presented their work and talked about the situation in Germany. Social worker Jona Sicheneder from the organisation “Wildwasser Würzburg e.V. - Association against sexual violence against girls and women” spoke about the situation of sexual violence against women in Germany and also described the special factors that come into play in the context of migration. Bernadette Ama Nyamekye gave an input on “Social work with victims of human trafficking and forced marriage” and reported from her work as a social worker in the organization “SOLWODI - Solidarity with Women in Distress”. Katrin Kammerlander shared her knowledge on the subject of “mental health and trauma of refugees” and her experience from her work at “refugio Munich”. Hannah Zanker spoke about the same topic when she presented the SoulTalk project at the initial reception centre for refugees in Schweinfurt and the innovative concept of psychosocial peer-to-peer counseling. In order to get a better insight into the educational situation of refugees in Germany, the school social worker Naoufel Hafsa talked about his work at the Mönchbergschule Würzburg. Anca Aicha informed the group on the subject of higher education for refugees in Germany and the DAAD project Integra / Welcome at the FHWS.

Furtheremore, there were three online lectures on social work and the socio-political context in Lebanon in preparation for the last project mobility in September. Hyam Kahi, a pioneer of social work in Lebanon, explained the history of social work in her country and discussed the current state of social work with the students. Dr. Khodor Awwad provided information on the situation of civil society and NGOs in Lebanon, while Talal Zeidan explained the political situation and history of Lebanon and thus provided a better understanding of the context.

Parallel to the program of the HED group, the participants of the international summer school met online as well to get to know each other. They also took part in the online meetings with the experts from Germany and Lebanon and listened to their lectures in preparation for their joint learning experience in September.

The HED team is having video meetings for the online project program. (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
The HED team is having video meetings for the online project program. (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)

Because of the corona pandemic, the Lebanon program also took place online.

The summer school for participants of the FHWS, Lebanese University and German Jordanian University took place between 21.08. and 11.09.2020. Previously, the students had taken part in a filming workshop by new media specialist Alexander Pinker to learn skills in cinematic storytelling techniques for a professional context. The film was also used as a tool to present topics from one's own living reality and to share them with the group in order to make the virtual exchange more personal. In addition, the students worked together in mixed teams on presentations about various topics of social work and presented them as part of the online program in September. In guest lectures, experts from various organizations in Lebanon gave the participants an understanding of the Lebanese perspective and reality with regard to numerous topics such as diversity, women's rights, community work, violence prevention and conflict transformation. Part of the summer school was also a multi-day workshop on qualitative research methods in the social sciences in order to promote the participants' scientific skills.

In addition, the summer school participants could take part in an 8-week course on mindfulness-based stress reduction by Prof. Dr. Hannah Reich, together with five other Syrian social workers in the Jordanian Zaatari refugee camp. In this context there was also a lecture by Mohammad Shwamra about social work in the Zaatari refugee camp.

In the week of September 7-11, 2020 there was a joint online program for the HED project group and the summer school participants. Social work and social movements in Lebanon were discussed in several lectures. The Social Work Syndicate Lebanon presented their work and in a workshop with social work pioneer Hyam Kahi the topic of ethics in social work was addressed.

As a conclusion, the student HED project members presented the results of their explorative research projects in the areas of education, health and gender equality in the context of migration, which were discussed in the group:

  • Vanessa Fakhry (Lebanese University): The lack of services provided to elderly Syrian refugees in Lebanon
  • Enas Al Khatib (Yarmouk University): The accessibility to health care services for Syrian refugees women in Irbid
  • Mitchelle Olang (FHWS): Self-efficacy in unaccompanied minor refugees - An overview of career decision making
  • Sara Al Quraan (Yarmouk University): Bullying among Syrian Students from the Perspectives of the Mothers
  • Katja Köder (FHWS): The transferability of the gender- and cultural- sensitive project “HEROES - against oppression in the name of honor” to young male refugee care leavers in the German youth welfare system
  • Rania El Irani (Lebanese University): Social work intervention with Syrian refugee women survivor of GBV in Lebanon - case managers challenges
  • Shatha Mutahar (GJU): Gender Equality: Is Changing Attitudes Possible?
  • Salma Al Falahat (GJU): Economic empowerment interventions for Syrian refugee women
Summer School + Project participants in online meetings (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Summer School + Project participants in online meetings (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online group presentations of Summer School group (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online group presentations of Summer School group (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online guest lectures of experts from Lebanon (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online guest lectures of experts from Lebanon (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online presentation on social utopia in graffitis in Lebanon by Heba Sarhan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online presentation on social utopia in graffitis in Lebanon by Heba Sarhan (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online presentations by student project participants on topics of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Health, Education and Gender Equality (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)
Online presentations by student project participants on topics of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Health, Education and Gender Equality (Photo: FHWS/ Mends)