Student Spotlight: Kelberer in HuffPo on Jordan Refugees

vickyresized

Vicky Kelberer, a graduate student at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, penned an article for the Huffington Post on the heartbreaking conditions endured by Jordan’s urban refugees, which she witnessed as part of a research trip to that country in June 2015.

“I have been studying the Syrian refugee crisis since it began, and over time I became interested in urban refugees in particular. Urban refugees are less likely to be featured in media reports than camp-based refugees, and shelter is simply not a “sexy” issue that gets much attention,” Kelberer said. “During my trip, I was surprised to discover visible signs of the housing crisis everywhere; vacant lots, unfinished construction projects, makeshift temporary shelters. The Syrian refugees are not the only causes of the housing shortage – Jordan needs additional housing units, not just for refugees but for native Jordanians as well.”

Kelberer is a member of the Pardee School’s MA program in International Affairs. Her thesis is on the topic of urban refugees in Jordan, thousands of whom arrived after fleeing violence in Syria. After graduation she intends to go into a career in global humanitarian and development policy.

My research in Jordan was made possible by my coursework, my faculty mentors, and generous grants from the Pardee School’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations and the Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies, of which BU is a founding member,” Kelberer said. “My education in the Pardee School will help me to address the seemingly insurmountable challenges faced by displaced persons around the world – will enable me to be a part of the effort to address the needs of displaced persons, as well as the root causes of displacement itself.”

In her July 7 article, Kelberer writes about the house of one urban refugee, who she refers to as Mohammed to protect him and his family. Mohammed’s home is crumbling, yet he and his family cannot receive repairs due to a work stoppage ordered by the Jordanian government. Kelberer’s article is called “No Place to Call Home: Government of Jordan Blocks Shelter Projects for Syrian Refugees.”

From the text of the article:

I visited Mohammed’s home in June 2015 with an NGO that provides shelter assistance, among other areas of humanitarian aid. Due to the government suspension, NGOs in Jordan can only work within narrow confines to improve the shelter situation: they can continue education programs about housing and property rights, and they can perform home assessments like this one, in the hope that the suspension will soon be lifted and projects will resume. In total, between the repairs to the roof and broken windows and upgrades to the bathroom, Mohammed’s house requires 900 Jordanian Dinars in funds (about 1,200 USD) to be considered habitable, albeit at a very minimal level. Ordinarily, the NGO would move forward to pay these upgrading funds in installments to refugee families or their landlords, to ensure that the money is spent on approved construction projects. Instead, due to the suspension, we leave Mohammed and his family of nine without promises, and without any idea of when or if the aid would materialize.”

You can read the entire article here. 

Kelberer is also a founding contributor of global affairs blog The Global Atlas. She can be followed on Twitter at @vickyvanvan.