Evan Behnam, an Iraqi refugee in Jordan, has gallstones and an infection. The doctor told him to come back in five weeks for surgery. Normally, he would not leave the hospital, “but because of my financial situation, I have to leave the hospital and recover at home until I can come back for the surgery.”
“The situation is difficult for us,” he said, because in Jordan, Iraqi refugees are not allowed to work. “All of them, Christians and Muslims, are affected.”
“Pontifical Mission covered the cost for me so that I can have the surgery,” he said.
Amer Al-Hafi, academic adviser at the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies, points out that Jordan has Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha’i. The institute studies religions and works to build strong relationships.
“We have not felt that there are any problems within this diverse national social component,” he said.
In Zerqa, Jordan, Sister Maryan Khume, director of the Mother of Mercy Clinic, said the clinic serves Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, Sudanese and Pakistani refugees as well as Jordanians, because of Jordan’s fragile economic situation.
“The services we provide are for everyone, regardless of nationality,” she said. “For us, this is not an issue, whether Christian or Muslim, because what matters is the human being, created in the image of God.”
Watch the video by Raghida Skaff.
Read more about how Jordan’s leaders of many faiths are working together during trying economic times in “A Deepening Fragility,” in the September issue of ONE.