Syrian Best Friends Stick Together Against All Odds

“At home I can manage, like if I want to go to the toilet, I go crawling.”

Zaatari Camp in Jordan is home to around 80,000 Syrian refugees. Among them are Hikmat and Abdullah. Hikmat, 12, has a physical disability and uses a wheelchair to get around. He and Abdullah, 11, met around a year ago when Abdullah helped push Hikmat home from school when the person who usually pushes him was absent. Since then, the pair have become inseparable.

At school, Hikmat gets teased but Abdullah is quick to stand up for him. According to his mother, Abdullah used to be a troublemaker but, since meeting Hikmat, he has adopted many of his friend’s personality traits, such as politeness. 

Although the schools in the camp are accessible, other parts of the camp are not, with gravel and mud making travel by wheelchair impossible. These conditions are exacerbated when it rains. 

The boys have lived in Jordan since fleeing Syria five years ago.