In the following very short video American writer John Green shows a little of what life is like for young people in the Zaatri refugee camp on an arid plain in northern Jordan near the Syrian border.

The camp was established 2012 July 28 (barely over 4 years ago as I write this) to shelter refugees from the civil war in Syria. It was supposed to be temporary, but because the war shows no sign of ending, Zaatri is developing into a permanent city with its own government and a population of around 80,000, most of them children and adolescents. The Wikipedia article on the camp (link) has a photo that shows the immense scale of the place.

There are reasons besides simple decency to help educate young people like the ones John Green interviews in the video. Adolescents in camps like this can lose hope and become vulnerable to the influence of everything from criminal gangs and drug dealers to political and religious extremists and terrorist organizations.

For whatever they’re worth, my other posts on the refugee crisis can be found at this link.

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