A Safer Summer for Children Like Fadi

As summer begins, children at Mosaic’s Olive Tree Centre in Fuheis are once again gathering for a season of games, creativity, friendship and learning.

For many children, summer should mean freedom, laughter and time to play. But for refugee families living in Jordan, the long school break can bring fresh pressures. Many live in overcrowded accommodation, with little safe outdoor space and few affordable activities for children. Parents are often carrying the weight of poverty, uncertainty and the effects of displacement themselves.

Across Jordan, around 80% of registered refugees live outside refugee camps, often in urban communities, and close to half are children. Recent UNHCR evidence shows that many refugee households are facing rising debt, worsening food insecurity and increasing reliance on harmful ways of coping as support systems come under growing strain. 

In this context, the Olive Tree Centre’s summer camp is far more than a holiday activity.

It offers children a safe, trusted place to be during the long summer days: somewhere they can play, make friends, learn, create, receive encouragement and simply be children. It also provides an important layer of protection. Without safe, structured provision, many children would be isolated at home or spending long periods outside without supervision, increasing their vulnerability to harm, exploitation and the pressures that can come with life on the margins.

For children who have experienced conflict, displacement or loss, routine matters. Familiar faces matter. Being welcomed, known and included matters.

This is especially true for children such as Fadi.

Some of you may remember Fadi and his siblings, who fled persecution in Iraq with their family and arrived in Jordan carrying the impact of experiences no child should have to face. Fadi has additional needs, including ADHD and other health-related challenges, and for a time he became increasingly withdrawn and isolated. His family is also managing complex needs, making consistent support especially important.

Through the Olive Tree Centre, Fadi has found gentle encouragement, patient relationships and a place where he can participate alongside other children. The summer camp helps ensure that this support does not disappear when formal classes pause. Instead, children like Fadi can continue to experience routine, friendship, creative activities and trusted adult care throughout the school holidays.

For his siblings too, the camp creates a chance to learn, play and feel part of a community. For their parents, it brings reassurance: knowing their children are somewhere safe, cared for and welcomed.

This continuity is vital. Trauma recovery is rarely a straight line, particularly when families remain displaced and uncertainty continues across the wider Middle East. Conflict, economic pressure and shrinking humanitarian resources are placing renewed strain on families already living with the long-term consequences of war and persecution. UNHCR has warned that limited funding is making it harder to meet existing refugee needs across the region. 

Yet in Fuheis, something hopeful is taking place.

Children are painting, singing, playing games, learning together and building friendships. They are discovering that they are not forgotten. They are being offered the ordinary but life-giving experiences that every child deserves: safety, belonging, fun and the chance to imagine a future beyond fear.

Thank you for making this possible.

Your support helps keep the Olive Tree Centre’s doors open through the summer and throughout the year. It enables our local partners to offer not only activities, but protection; not only learning, but confidence; not only practical help, but dignity and hope.

For children like Fadi and his siblings, your support helps ensure that displacement does not have the final word.