Farah Al Sayyed

In Jordan, a clan-centric country that lacks empathy for children born out of wedlock and orphans once they turn 18, Farah Al-Sayyed, along with her partner, Adham Khader, is uprooting systemic discrimination against orphans and youth deprived of family ties, while empowering them to transition and fully integrate into society. 

Family ties in Jordanian society are of utmost importance. Being a member of a community with no familial ties can be easily recognized from the ID number and the family name. Abandoned children are stigmatized and referred to with derogatory terms, and in orphanages, they face a myriad of problems including mistreatment, poor-quality education, and the lack of support once they turn 18. 

Farah Al-Sayyed, and her partner Adham Khader, are addressing these challenges through Sakeena (Arabic for 'serenity’), the first orphan-led organization in the Arab World dedicated to the representation, protection, and comprehensive development of youth deprived of family ties.

Central to Sakeena’s strategy is the key role that orphans are playing in the decision-making process and governance of the organization. Sakeena is creating critical missing social networks for orphans, as well as incorporating and amplifying their voices in changing laws, policies, practices, norms, and systems of discrimination and abuse. Sakeena is the vehicle that enables orphans and youth deprived of family ties in Jordan to implement the ‘nothing about us, without us’ approach to empowerment, rights and narrative change. 

In addition to the multitude of support and services provided by Sakeena for this overlooked population, Sakeena successfully spearheaded national campaigns and abolished the derogatory term “laqeet” (Arabic for bastard/foundling) from all official/legal publications. It has been replaced with “faaqed sanad osari” (deprived of family ties); the term deemed most appropriate by the orphans themselves. This newly formed term was adopted in Egypt following Sakeena’s success in Jordan. Moreover, Sakeena’s short documentary “ID000” exposed the mistreatment and abuse taking place within orphanages across the country, leading to the improvement of care centers’ management system. Furthermore, Sakeena took to the royal court and enabled orphans to be issued the same ID numbers as other citizens, and successfully engaged lawyers, the royal family, and the Muslim and Christian religious establishments to openly condemn societal misperceptions of orphans without family ties leading to stigma and lack of support.  

Sakeena is developing a comprehensive manual gathering the lessons learnt from their experience in changing policies, regulations and norms, to enable its replication by citizen organizations on regional and international levels. 

In a tribal and clan-centric country, family ties are of utmost importance in Jordan. People identify themselves and others by their family names. Job applications, financial state support, and marriages require family names. Those who do not have known family lineage are discriminated against and heavily stigmatized, which is the case for orphans, 60% of whom being born out of wedlock. As adultery is criminalized in Jordan, parents are incarcerated, and their children are forbidden from carrying their family name. Consequently, orphans face harmful social stereotypes and widespread discrimination.  

Social segregation is not just a cultural norm, but also deeply entrenched in the country’s legal framework. For instance, as opposed to the rest of citizens whose national identification numbers start with their respective birth dates, orphans’ IDs would all start with the same three digits: 000, which made it easy for anyone to identify them and single them out. Furthermore, in all official/legal publications (newspapers, articles, books, and the media), children with no known families have been referred to in derogatory terms such as “laqeet” or “awlad haram” (Arabic for bastard/foundling, and child of sin respectively).

On another hand, and in addition to the mistreatment and abuse in orphanages and care centres, orphans receive poor quality education and psychological support, and are required to rotate to a different care centres every two years, further deepening the instability of their situation. Typically, children end up reaching the age of 18 still illiterate, and are required to leave the care centres, the only home they have ever known, without any kind of support or transitional plan, becoming “care leavers”.

In a society heavily structured around family as opposed to State support, care leavers are left to fend for themselves and find jobs without the benefit of a family or social networks. Most Jordanians have no problem admitting that 'they would never consent' to their offspring marrying an orphan and many people do not want them to work for them or to rent their properties. Furthermore, citizens willing to donate their charity money to orhans would make sure only to support “pure” orphans, which implicitly means “not born out of wedlock”.

In these circumstances, less than 2% of care leavers continue their education and the majority is unable to secure housing for themselves, leaving them at considerable risk of criminality as well as physical and psychological abuse. Having no resources of their own forces many graduates to live on the streets and resort to petty crime or prostitution. A UNICEF study shows that within the first year of leaving orphanages, 10% of all care leavers in Jordan attempt suicide, 30% become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and 50% resort to prostitution or crime.   

Heavily dependent on the Ministry of Social Development, orphans are neither exposed to opportunities nor are they aware of the support that other citizen organizations and State institutions may provide and remain in a perpetual state of helplessness and instability. 

Sakeena is empowering orphans and youth deprived of family ties to fully integrate them into society through a holistic empathy-based model, focused on systemic transformations. Sakeena is rewriting the social narrative on children born out of wedlock in the Arab world; providing orphans with the needed support; breaking social taboos and institutional barriers surrounding them and advancing orphans as stakeholders of their cause through an inclusive leadership model. 

Farah started by exposing the mistreatment and abuse taking place within orphanages across the country through an 18-minute short film, ID000. The film draws its name from the national security code given to those with no family in Jordan. The nation-wide campaign had huge societal echo, to the point where the Ministry of Social Development denied the content of the documentary and pressured a well-known local newspaper to retract the two-pages-long article about Sakeena two days after it was published.  

Farah built on the momentum and spearheaded a number of national campaigns as well as advocacy to the royal court. Since 2014, orphans with existing ID000 numbers became able to change them, and newborns are issued IDs similar to those of other citizens. The documentary also shed light on the verbal and emotional abuse taking place in orphanages, which caused the Ministry of Social Development to investigate and shut down one of the worst care centers, and to update the hiring system in to ensure only individuals with credible relevant degrees get to deal with orphans. Sakeena also partnered with UNICEF and other institutions to monitor all 46 orphan centers across the country. Through these arrangements, Sakeena has access to 23 orphan centers, striving to prevent psychological and physical abuse from occurring, and escalating the issue in the case of an incident. In each of these centers and for the first time in Jordan, Sakeena set up a case management system, so every orphan aging out has a tailored transition and integration plan. In addition to working inside orphanages, Farah managed to change the policy of children having to move to a different care center every two years. Now, children can stay in the same institution until they reach the age of 18. 

Sakeena also abolished the derogatory term “laqeet” (Arabic for bastard/foundling) in all official/legal  publications.  An orphan himself, her partner Adham organized a committee comprised of orphans who agreed on “faaqed sanad osari” (deprived of family ties), which is currently the only acceptable term used nation-wide. This process started with cultivating empathy by sensitizing and exposing ministries and the wider community to orphans’ realities, their stories and the negative connotation associated with these terms. 

Upon realizing that a large  part  of  the  systemic discrimination  is  owed  to  misconceived  religious  notions, Sakeena engaged members of the royal family, psychologists, lawyers, and the Muslim and Christian establishments to correct misconceptions and condemn  people  who  are  against  the  support  of  orphans  with  no family ties, leading to a Muslim  fatwa, or ruling, strongly  stating  that orphans with no family ties were  more  needy  than  others,  and  blamed society for any form of abuse against them. In a majority Muslim country with 95% following Sunni Islam, the fatwa helped in shifting the narrative, and was later effectively used by other advocacy organizations in public campaigns. 

Sakeena also directly works with orphans to create an alternative social network for them which operates on four levels. The first is the provision of basic needs for care leavers for at least two months. The second level is social and psychological support and the welcoming in the safe “home-like” space of Sakeena itself. The third is skills development and education aiming to effectively integrate orphans into society with the help of Sakeena’s case management system. The fourth is matching with job opportunities to have a sustainable financial income to support their independence and integration. Sakeena also gives legal support for care leavers, especially girls, who might encounter gender-based violence.  

To date, Sakeena has worked with and supported almost 20% of the care leavers across Jordan. With the start of COVID-19 pandemic, the world was giving attention to the importance of having a family support system and a lot of people losing their jobs, Farah and Adham established an emergency program where Sakeena was responding on a 24/7 basis to any issue orphans had, including supplying them with food and medicine, and maintaining their well-being. In all of Sakeena’s decisions, campaigns, and activities, orphans were consulted, and their agency strengthened. They are part of the General Unit of Sakeena’s Board and are consistently engaged for new projects.  

Since its foundation in 2010, Sakeena has been able to establish many partnerships with national and international stakeholders and donors including the Ministry of Social Development, UNICEF, Al-Aman Fund, Leaders of Tomorrow, Princess Alia Foundation, and the King Hussein Foundation. They have also weaved regional connections leading to the use of the new term “deprived of family ties” in Egypt since 2016.  

To counter the lack of proper data and documentation in the field, Sakeena partnered with the King Hussein Foundation and developed a three-year-long research study with orphans at the forefront. With UNICEF, Sakeena is also developing the Sakeena Manual to share years of know-how, data and comprehensive analysis about residents of care centers with relevant stakeholders in Jordan and beyond (policymakers, care givers, and community based organizations).  

Although born and raised in Jordan, Farah experienced displacement firsthand with her family when she was 15 years old. For years, she knew what it feels like to lack an adequate safety net, a home, and a supportive network/community. This experience gave her deep empathy that was later channeled into outrage and proactiveness towards the injustices she witnessed. 

Whether at school or at university, Farah always dedicated a lot of her time to community service.  She mainly volunteered with orphans and refugees, raised funds for social causes, and opened her own clothing shop in Amman while an undergraduate at Business school. Orphans and refugees were part of Farah’s shop that mixed business and social work.

Determined to support vulnerable populations in Jordan, Farah was shocked at the orphans’ situation when she first met them in charity events she organized. She went to the Ministry of Social Affairs to challenge them and understand the reason they let this happen, an encounter that left her more enraged and determined to turn her anger and empathy into action.  

What started as a charity-dominated approach providing orphans deprived of family ties with fundraised money, food, and shelter, later turned into a policy and empathy-led approach when she met her partner, Adham Khader, in 2009. Together, they exposed the mistreatment taking place inside care centers through an investigative documentary that resulted in a large societal echo. After facing many challenges with authorities, they were finally able to register their organization, Sakeena, in 2010. Farah later studied child protection in a program affiliated with the University of Wisconsin to deepen her understanding and professional qualifications to address the challenges of institutional care settings. 

Sakeena is a bridge led by Farah and Adham, two equally intensively invested individual who have made this cause their life’s mission: Farah, a Palestinian woman, empathetic and angry enough to use her social connections and fundraising expertise to bring the legitimate ties to society, and Adham who was educated and awakened enough to utilize his deep understanding of the community and its needs to take on an abusive system while bringing credibility. Sakeena as it stands today could not exist without them both.