As a three-year conflict rages on, children battle an old enemy: polio.
Inside the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northwestern Jordan, near the Syrian border, a biting wind whips around homes cobbled together from tents, cinder blocks, and shipping containers. In this desert labyrinth, a gritty layer of sand covers everything. Syrian families began arriving here two years ago, fleeing war and persecution. Over two weeks, the United Nations set up a refugee camp. What started as a few tents has become a temporary home to nearly 100,000 people. The residents have made Zaatari an informal city, selling whatever they can – fruit, falafel, electronics, wedding gowns – along a makeshift shopping district nicknamed the Champs-Élysées.
Only a few miles away from Zaatari, the violence in Syria rages on. As the uprising-turned-civil-war enters its fourth year, three million Syrians have escaped to neighboring countries. More than half are children. The conflict in Syria has become one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century.
In late 2013, 35 cases of polio were confirmed in the country, which had been polio-free for 14 years. Health authorities confirmed the virus was imported from Pakistan. In camps like Zaatari, where thousands of people live in congested conditions, stopping an outbreak of disease is critical, and the flare-up triggered an urgent response from aid groups. To immunize children as quickly as possible, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with local health authorities, conducted large-scale campaigns throughout 1,200 fixed sites, such as health clinics and schools. Three hundred mobile teams targeted hard-to-reach areas, which involved vaccinators entering Syria and the refugee camps just outside the country’s borders. In three days, 19,000 children received drops of polio vaccine.
Photographer Jean-Marc Giboux traveled to Jordan and made his way into the Zaatari camp, where he documented the immunization campaign. “There’s so much emotion within the walls of this camp. These people have been going through hell, and when something like polio reemerges, it’s a new wave of mayhem.” — Megan Ferringer
Photography by Jean-Marc Giboux:
