by Khetam Malkawi | Feb 25,2012 | JORDAN TIMES

AMMAN — Despite the difficult conditions in which they currently live, Syrians seeking refuge in the Kingdom from the violence in their country say the assistance of Jordanians is making their situation easier to bear.

“It was not easy to leave my country at first, but the peaceful life I am leading here and the help that Jordanian families are providing us helped ease the pain,” Um Ahmad, a Syrian refugee living in Amman, said yesterday.

Umm Ahmad said she and her family are sharing an apartment with three other families.

“We can’t afford to pay the rent of JD300. So each family lives in a room and we share the rent,” the mother of three told The Jordan Times, adding that neither she nor her husband are able to work in Jordan, “and we depend heavily on the help of our Jordanian neighbours”.

“When the neighbourhood heard about us,” she explained, “they started providing us with food, furniture and basic goods that we could not afford.”

Um Ghazi, another displaced Syrian living in Mafraq, said she lives on assistance from charities.

“I live with my husband, six children and my divorced daughter in two rooms,” Um Ghazi told The Jordan Times over the phone yesterday, adding that none of her children have jobs.

“We have to pay JD100 in rent, which we cannot afford. However, the Islamic Charity Centre helps us pay the rent and they provide us with other supplies,” Um Ghazi said, stressing that despite the hardships she and her family are currently going through, “living in peace is a priority, and we cannot go back to Syria under these circumstances”.

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In this file photo taken in December last year, Syrian children are seen in Mafraq where their family resorted to after they fled a brutal crackdown on dissent back home (Photo by Khalid Oudat)