News and images of refugee crises from around the world continue to imbue our consciousness. From the tragic scenes at the U.S.-Mexico border to the perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea, we know that refugees are constantly in pursuit of physical safety and a dignified life.

For Palestinian refugees, the journey continues. Unable to exercise their right to return to their homes after they fled Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967, they and their descendants remain confined to refugee camps in derelict conditions.

This is why UPA’s Humanitarian Support Program provides a wide range of critical services to our refugee brothers and sisters, such as medical and pharmaceutical supplies, food parcels and heating fuel vouchers to name a few.

During wintertime, Palestinian refugees in the Gaza and Hittin camps in Jordan are confronted with many challenges, which have become more pronounced since the U.S. slashed its funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

“All camp residents dread wintertime. It causes a state of panic,” said 47 years old Hanadi, a widowed mother of seven from the Hittin refugee camp.

Indeed, as winter’s harshness sweeps across their fragile dwellings, Palestinian refugees must reckon with difficult choices and limited resources. “Should I think of how to buy winter clothes for the kids? Or how to warm the house? Or what to do to seal the roof so it would stop leaking? Or how to secure medication when my children become sick?” Hanadi described her predicament.

Without the heating fuel vouchers, Hanadi would have been left with only one hazardous option to warm her dwelling: burn wood or plastic.

When UPA asked Hanadi about the risks of doing so, she simply replied, “when you are a resident of the camp, you will eventually learn that there are much harsher and tougher things than death itself.” One of those things is her inability to provide warmth to her children, she added.

With the ability to warm her dwelling, Hanadi is relieved that her children will be able to sleep undisturbed by the freezing temperatures at the peak of winter in Jordan. Tahani, another resident of the camp agreed. “I will go back home with a great and warm surprise for my children,” she told UPA. “I can see the smile on their face when I turn the space heater on,” she remarked excitedly.

For 34 years old Ammar, a resident of the Hittin refugee camp, the heating vouchers mean more than the ability to provide warmth for his family. “This campaign reminds me that we are not left alone or neglected,” he told UPA.

These stories are only an example of many others in the Hittin and Gaza camps in Jordan. The heating fuel vouchers are helping shield 160 families, approximately 1,100 individuals, from the harshest stretch of winter. They are the reason UPA works every day to make sure your contribution delivers the greatest impact to transform and empower Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan.