Disabled and Displaced Our World

It is one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our

generation. A conflict that is not only tearing apart families but an

entire country. Around 11 million Syrians have been forced to leave

their homes. Many have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the

ongoing violence. I'm Nikki Fox, and I in an Jordan, a country that

admits it is unable to support the estimated 1.4 million refugees it

has already taken in. At the moment, I just think about walking again and

everything will come about. Just take it one step? Step-by-step. If

we are really looking to respond in a comments of way, and I'm not

talking about millions of dollars of financial support, but billions of

dollars. With the third having a disability or a series health

condition I'm here to find out how the most vulnerable survive --

cereus. This is their story. The first place we visit is Zaatari

refugee camp, a city in the middle of a desert. This place has grown

exponentially since the start of the conflict. Only a few miles from the

Syrian border, it is where more than 80,000 refugees have sought safety.

With its barbed wire fences and rows of white boxes, it is unlike any

city I have ever seen before. The first person I meet is a little girl

who is only ever known conflict -- has. Five-year-old Malik Foster left

leg when her home in Syria was bombed. She's learning to walk with

a new frame. Her mum tells me about the date the 10th came. -- tanks.

Malik often forgets she's in pain. But here, she is safe. Goodbye! How

difficult is it for you as a man? She didn't want to show her face to

protect your family still in Syria -- as a mother?

Malik's mother can't afford to dream of going back to Syria. She has more

immediate concerns. Living here with a disability is tough. Apart from

the fact you are away from your home and everything you know, your

family, familiarity, living with a disability is tricky getting around,

or just a quick difficult. I can imagine a lot of disabled people do

feel a bit trapped in our own spaces, in their own places. They

just can't get out. One charity that helps people like Malik is Handicap

International. They estimate that around 30% of refugees in the camp

have some kind of disability or chronic health condition. Every day,

dozens of disabled refugees come for vital treatment. You are pushing me!

One of those is 28-year-old Ragda, who has cerebral palsy. Unlike

Malik, living in Zaatari has given her a new-found independence. Hello!

This could be a bit of a bumpy arrival. Bear with me, they're with

me. She fled Syria three years ago. The only way she could do it was by

being carried across the border. Lovely to meet you! How did you do

it without a wheelchair, Ragda? Ragda's disability meant her life

back home difficult -- made her life. She had no wheelchair and very

little support. And that was before the war. Do you hope to one day go

back home this might know. No? No. Why not? Why?

OK! It is only since arriving in Zaatari that Ragda started to get

regular physiotherapy to help with her cerebral palsy, but what has

really made a difference to her life is the fact she now has a wheelchair

from Handicap International. Ragda's parents died in Syria. She

is now completely dependent on the charity. Do you feel looked after

Hugh? -- here? That is definitely perfect. Ragda, it has been a

pleasure meeting you, because I can't imagine how you get around,

but you are what we call in the UK a tough cookie. That is what you are,

a tough cookie. # Don't be shy

# Just roll on by #. Even with a new-found sense of

freedom, she said having something like my scooter would make a huge

difference to her life. They all want my scooter.

LAUGHTER Go around in a circle! The children

have been fascinated by my scooter. I don't think anyone has seen a

mobility scooter before, not one might this anyway. -- not one like

this. I have had kids running behind me in total fascination. I don't

think they have anything here that is motorised. No electric

wheelchairs, no mobility scooters. The only mobility they have is maybe

a walking frame or a Wiltshire. -- wheelchair. The difficulties I saw

in Zaatari are very much mirrored here in Jordan's new escape, Azraq.

-- newest camp. Billed simply because there is no more room in

Zaatari. This place is even harder to get around because of the sheer

size of it. Home to more than 20,000 refugees, but with space for five

times that amount, the camp feels desert. -- does alert. In between

rows upon rows of metal roofs, large ditches line the long dusty roads.

Eventually we came across the only supermarket on the camp, but it took

us some time. We had a van. The majority here don't have that

luxury. Which is side, the coups shopping is just that little bit of

normality. -- because. If you have a disability would be really difficult

if not impossible. There is a car, but you have to pay for it. If you

don't have money that could be very tricky. This place is the future for

the many thousands stuck at the Jordanian border desperate to get

in. The UNHCR says they have just about manage to provide the very

basics, but they admit it is impossible to meet the needs of the

hundreds of thousands of disabled refugees already living in Jordan.

If we are really looking to respond in a conference of way to the needs

of Syrians, this has to go a step above what is ready been done. You

are not talking about millions of dollars of financial support, you

are talking about billions of dollars of financial support. All in

all, the services we provide in the camp are geared primarily to

covering basic needs. So often these issues are quite a challenge to

respond to as fully as we would like to. I'm always surprised at the

resilience and drive and determination of the Syrians

themselves to respond to their own needs. But this resilience is tested

even further. 80% of all of the refugees in Jordan don't live in

these camps. They try and survive in and around the main cities, often

hidden ending poverty. -- and in poverty.

After seeing the struggles disabled refugees have around two of

Jordan's main camps, iron back in the van heading to the capital

city. A city which has for many years been the home for the

displaced. -- I'm back in the van. This area is known as the

Palestinian camp and dates back decades. But more and more Syrians

are living here. Why? Because it is cheap. Behind this apartment

building the less it costs, which makes it impractical if you have a

disability. The charity Handicap International doesn't support rivage

is in the camps, they have a number of mobile teams that go to help

people. We have many people have a problem in mobility. Many with

spinal cord injuries, many with dramatic brain injuries. They cannot

go down the stairs. You can see from here that the stairs are really

crazy. They are mad, aren't they? Many of the refugees they see live

in high-rise apartment blocks. This man and his brother left Syria not

long after the start of the conflict. They were successful

factory owners back home, so providing for their children wasn't

a problem. He was a hard-working and generous man. But the pressure he

was under, being forced to leave his country and the loss of his

business, were all too much. His brother says this contributed to him

having a stroke. The family live on the third floor. It is all they can

afford. The only way he can leave his home is if his brother carries

him. They have received some financial support from various

charities, like paying for the initial treatment, but now what

little they have goes towards paying for his ongoing medical bills.

While his physical health is slowly improving, his family remained

trapped in an unsuitable home with very little income.

That particular area that we were in is the only area that they can live

in because of the price, they don't have any money, their medical bills

are huge, there's nothing... There's no other, really. They are being

quite basic about it. There's just not enough money. Jordan Archer bin

with a huge influx of refugees and 30% of them have disabilities or a

chronic health condition. -- are dealing with. There's just a massive

funding shortfall. Since 2014, serene refugees are no longer

eligible for free secondary healthcare that so many with

disabilities rely on. That's prosthetics or in this case the

therapy and ongoing medication. There are an estimated 1.4 million

refugees now living in Jordan. 25% of this country's budget is spent on

them. With a huge funding shortfall from the international community, I

asked the government if this meant that most vulnerable are being

forgotten. We are very hospitable people, but at the end of the day

there will come a time when you need to look at the interests of

Jordanians vis-a-vis the interests of non- Jordanians who are living in

Jordan. As a country, as the government, our priority as his

Majesty has said is serving the Jordanian people.

So with the government admitting it is overstretched and underfunded,

how do disabled refugees get the treatment they need? Well, it is

down to charities like medicine songs frontier to step in. --

Medecins Sans Frontieres . This is the hospital many injured Syrians

come to for that vital after-care. They've had their life-saving

surgery and here is where they it in the long recovery process. -- here

is where they begin. I was in my home, suddenly the wall exploded.

And I find both legs injured. And they immediately brought me here.

And a work appear after if you days. -- woke up here. He has been

receiving intensive treatment for nearly a year now. It is hard.

Sometimes exhausting, but it is getting easier every day. So I think

in the next three months it will be too easy. It will be so easy! You

don't even need to turn up! I will get rid of him, my physio. He's a

goner! Before he was injured in the war he was a training lawyer and a

pretty decent football. Here, at the hospital, he has been exercising

hard. -- decent footballer. Almost every day. We have some music. You

listen to music? No. I play Clash of Clans. What is that? It is again!

Candy Crush?. Everyone knows that! It is entertaining.

What is your aim for the future? I think go back to my home. Just that.

Do you have family still? Yes, all my family in Syria. They are waiting

for me. Are they? Yes. I will go back. When I start walk will go back

immediately. Really? Yes. That's what keeps you going? Yes. Yes.

While he sees his future back on an Syria, right now this hospital is

where he needs to be. -- back home. But soon he will have to move on. So

where will he go if he can't get back home? There are many disabled

refugees who end up on the streets of Jordan's capital city. This

centre was set up to find and take care of those people.

Many of them will have arrived in Jordan without family or friends.

Here they are no longer alone. A home by definition is somewhere

you live with people who love you and you love them back and this is

what everybody here feels. Ask, the staff, and patience. They visit

hospitals and search the surrounding areas for those refugees who are at

their lowest and have nowhere to go. If this place is not existing, I

think you would end up alone, neglected, on a mattress on some

corner in a dark, empty room. I don't want to imagine. I love it

when I spend my time here. Making fun of them, they making fun of me.

They love you? I love them so much. We are back on the road again.

Heading for a city which is 20 kilometres from the Syrian border.

It is our last day and we are off to visit another centre for disabled

refugees. Unlike the last place there's no physio or specialist

rehabilitation here. Instead these young men with injuries from war

meet every week to talk about how they see their future as disabled

refugees living in Jordan. Their lives have been changed

forever, but they are resilient. They don't want sympathy. Guys,

what's your message to other disabled people?

One, two, three, go! Despite their situation, these young men won't be

beaten. But I can't help inking about their future. And the future

of those I've met. All of these people have very different stories.

But they all share one thing. A total reliance on charities to

survive. And with too many people and not enough money, what does

their future hold? I've asked the question a lot, where do you see

yourself in five years time, and many people are just... They can't

really say. It is getting by every day, that's what is important.

That's what they have to do and that's the only thing they can do.

The bank holiday weekend is finally upon us and there will be some good

opportunities for getting out and about.

There is warm sunshine in the forecast.

Not the full story, because there are thunderstorms