Project: Women’s Documentary Photo Workshop (2019)

Jerash Refugee Camp, Jordan

The Women’s Documentary Photo Workshop created a space for visual storytelling by the refugee community, for the refugee community.

The workshop brought together 5 women in Jerash Refugee Camp, Jordan to use documentary photography as a means of sharing a story of significance to them. Each woman applied for the program through a written application process. In partnership with community-based partner Hopes for Women in Education, and with support from Sitti Social Enterprise, the workshop occurred over the span of 10-weeks (January-March 2019). Every participant was given a digital camera. Weekly sessions included fully translated English-Arabic interactive lectures and class discussions covering documentary photography fundamentals and their relevance to the experiences of the workshop participants and their community. In addition to lectures and in-class exercises, each session included a participatory critique where each student presented their work from the previous week’s assignment and engaged the class in discussion and peer-to-peer feedback on their work. Weekly homework assignments and subsequent class critiques contributed to the students’ final projects. The concluding session was a day-long photo exhibit of the students’ final projects printed and exhibited at the Hopes-Sitti Women’s Centre in Jerash Camp. The space was open to community members, including those who were photographed and their families, to view the work and engage with the photographers.

History of Jerash Refugee Camp:

In 1968, The United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) established Jerash Refugee Camp as an “emergency” camp for 11,500 Palestinian refugees and displaced persons who fled the Gaza Strip in response to the 1967 Six Day War. The camp and its community have since adopted the nickname “Gaza” Camp.

Today, UNRWA estimates that upwards of 29,000 Palestinian refugees reside within the borders of Jerash “Gaza” Camp. According to Amnesty International, 94% of the camp’s residents do not hold Jordanian citizenship. Furthermore, as Palestinians who fled Gaza (or are the descendants of those who fled) and came to Jordan after 1967, they are barred from entering Israel or Gaza.