Misery mounts for Syrian refugees

Fatima's working hours start when the sun sinks behind Amman’s western mountains, signaling an end to the day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. It is then, when the noisy traffic of the busy capital is silenced, and the call to prayer echoes through the streets, that Muslims head to the mosque and then home for a special meal with family and friends.
It is also then that this emaciated, green-eyed refugee leaves her mother and sisters in a shabby apartment and heads to a mosque in the posh part of the capital. Holding her younger brother by the arm, she patiently waits for the prayers to end so she can start begging.
“People are more generous during Ramadan,” the 10-year-old refugee said, dressed in a torn red blouse and dirty black trousers, and standing barefoot outside the mosque. In this large mosque made of limestone, well-off worshipers arrive in expensive cars to pray before heading home to break their daylong fast. Fatima says her mother and sisters did not want to come begging with her.
“My two big sisters are shy. They do not want to leave home, but I do not mind. We need money to eat. Nobody is helping us enough,” said the young refugee, who managed to collect $ 14 before departing downhill with her younger brother through the dark allies of the capital. Jordan says it is facing an uphill battle to provide for the more than half a million Syrian refugees that have fled the civil war in Syria. The government has appealed for more aid from the international community, but officials say the donations are still far less than they are spending on the refugees. The cash-strapped kingdom set up three refugee camps with the help of wealthy Gulf countries and some European donors. The largest camp, Al-Zaatari, near the Syrian border, houses nearly 150,000 refugees in large white tents.
Refugees living in camps receive food rations, but others who live in the cities are struggling to adapt to life in Jordan. Ahmed Abel Rahman, a Syrian activist who provides aid to families outside the refugee camps, said organizations are finding it harder to needed aid. “Restaurants are charging more for Ramadan meals and local authorities prevent us from entering the camp to provide aid directly to refugees,” Abel Rahman said.
Emotions run high among refugees during the holy month, as they recall past Ramadan’s back home when the table was full of food and the extended family.
“We used to have all my brothers and sisters surrounding the table and food in abundance. Now, my family is scattered and the food we get is not enough to feed us,” Abu Abdel Rahman, an injured rebel from Deraa and a father of six, who currently lives in Ramtha said. “Now the feeling of dependency on aid groups is worse than death.”