Child care has improved in Jordan

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 6

Child care has improved in Jordan

“Me and my brotheiagainst my cousin; me and my brother and my cousin against the world.” This Arab saying illustrates the strong family ties which are one of the main characteristics of the Arab, both M o sle m and Christian.

Many European women who have married Arabs have found, sometimes to their chagrin, that they have married not only their man but his family as well. This custom of the closely knit family has a considerable bearing on S.C.F. work, mostly for good, although the application of the principle is sometimes, in Western eyes, archaic and harsh. The family is responsible fqr the deeds of each of its members. The family is also responsible for helping those members who fall on evil times. Abandoned children are almost unknown. Orphans are taken by other members of the family. Old people are invariably looked after by their relatives until they die. Genuine love

Parents genuinely love their children—even the girl children. On the other hand it is a “shame” to have an abnormal child, whether mentally or physically, and not infrequently such children are shut away at home out of sight, thus leading a wretched life.

This family unity is shared by Jordan’s disparate population of Bedouin tribesmen, a Hussein’s people; the of central Jordan, who often still show traces of Crusader descent and many of whom are Christians, Circassians, and Armenians (immigrants from the early part of this century); and the Moslem and Christian Mediterranean people of Palestine. Jordan has placed immense importance on education, at least In recent years. Schools are to be found in the smallest and remotest spots. Teachers leaving the teaching colleges have to spend at least one year at village schools.

There are now many girls' schools’ and even in the remotest places many girls now come to mixed primary schools. However, the majority of adult women, particularly in the smaller villages and the desert areas, are virtually uneducated. Their knowledge of hygiene, baby care, and elementary medical matters is mainly confined to what their mothers have taught them and is a matter of custom. Ignorance It is this ignorance, more perhaps than poverty or persistent under - nourishment, with which our teams have been contending in the time that I have been in Jordan. If a child has a fever, wrap it up in as many blankets as possible to sweat it out If a child has colic, bum its stomach with a cigarette end to “let out the devil.” If a child has a runny tummy, give it castor oil—the more the better.

I remember one of our doctors, in desperation after one clinic at which he had found too many cases of children suffering from overdoses of castor oil, going to the village shop, buying up all the bottles of castor oil, taking them out into the street and jumping up and down on them.

Needless to say the shopkeeper came to him the next week and said: “I’ve got some more castor oil, Hakim, if you would like to buy it.” The care of their children by the mothers in those places where we have been able to exert our influence has improved immeasurably. Because of lack of statistics It is not possible to say to what extent infant mortality has been reduced, but the suffering of children from inadequate and improper care has been immensely reduced. Patience I must pay tribute to the wonderful patience, determination and, to use a hackneyed expression, dedication of our staff, Arab and expatriate. Patience is the most needed of the characteristics. You cannot give an ultimatum to a difficult mother—do this or I chuck in my hand. The sufferer will be the child not the mother.

As in any community some mothers are-dim; some are just plain “naughty.” Some find things too difficult And life in a tent or hut with eight or nine children, water often a mile away, no money at all, a father perhaps too old or too sick to be of any help or any use, a nagging mother-in-law, cannot be easy. The fact that they cope at all is proof of their genuine love for their children.

Most of my remarks apply particularly to the Jordanian Arab who lives in the southern half of the country where there is more than half of the S.C.F. work. However, our work with the Palestinian refugees in one' of the big camps near Amman is on much the same lines and many similar problems present themselves. Most literate Illiteracy among the women is much less common for the people mostly come from large villages or from othei refugee camps. Nevertheless, health education continues to be our main contribution to child welfare with the Palestinian community as with the rest. I am often asked when 1 Jordan will be able to handle ; this work without our help. The population, though swollen with refugees, is very small—some one. and one half million, about Half of whom are minors.

From them the country has to find a complete range of skills both ih the professions and in the technical sphere. S.C.F. has successfully sponsored a great number of scholarships and training courses. Many of the beneficiaries are still working with us. Cash is even more difficult Jordan is a poor country living, at present, largely on the bounty of others. If required

to take on further child-care work funds could only be found by taking them from some other medical work.

Frankly, I doubt if they would be found at all. I am sure there will be a continuing need for our help in this small and unfortunate country for a long time to come. ,

Lieutenant-Colonel R. E. S. Skelton, who wrote this article for “The World’s Children,” has been a Save The Children Fund administrator In Jordan for the last nine years. He was awarded an 0.8. E. in the 1070 British New Year Honours List. Jordan is a major recipient of aid from the New Zealand S.C F.