Freelance Journalist Gives Perspective on Refugee Crisis in the Middle East

Alice Su, a freelance journalist for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, argued
to Elon students on Thursday, that in order to efficiently help refugees in the Middle East
the aid system must be reconstructed.
Su moved to Amman, Jordan, soon after her graduation from Princeton
University. She said she had an interest in journalism and wanted to report on
underreported topics that would make a difference. She said she was drawn to the refugee
crisis in the Middle East and decided to move there to report on it.
She said, I wanted to understand more, to go deeper.
This curiosity and determination is what got Su to pack up her life in America and
move to Jordan. When she got to Jordon she began to visit refugee camps and speak to
the people there.
Su said that before she experienced refugee camps she had the assumption that the
people there were fine since they were out of the warzone. When she saw the refugee
camps firsthand and heard the stories of the people there, she realized this was not the
case.
Su said that just because these people escaped the war does not mean the crisis
has ended, it has just taken a different form.
The conditions of these refugee camps were not what she said she expected. Su
saw that many had no running water or electricity. She realized that the aid system did
not have enough money to give the refugees better living conditions.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is in charge of aid and,
according to Su, the system is stretched beyond its limits. She said it can only provide
basic needs. Su mentioned a family she met in a refugee camp that was struggling to
provide their 2-week-old child with formula, an item not provided.
The refugees are not allowed to work and are not provided enough aid. With these
limitations their only option is to stay in the refugee camps.
These refugees want to work, Su said, they do not want to ask for handouts. She
believes the aid system needs to be reworked to support the refugees without making
them dependent on the system.
The refugees need ways to rebuild and get stronger, she said. So that one day
they can go back and be stronger.