Twins Find Their Spark: Anwar and Mohammad's Journey in Makani Center

Inside Za’atari refugee camp, on a pitch that has felt thousands of small feet, two brothers run like the world outside doesn’t exist. Twins Mohammad and Anwar, now 13, were only months old when they arrived in Za’atari Camp in northern Jordan. They have grown up entirely within its boundaries, alongside tens of thousands of Syrians who now call the camp home.

Within those boundaries, they have built something of their own. 

The twins attend their local Makani centre regularly, a UNICEF supported space that offers refugee and vulnerable children learning support, protection, and skills building activities. It is where both brothers, who struggled with reading in their early years, slowly began to catch up. “Little by little, we learned to read faster and spell better,” Anwar says.

At the Makani centre, sports are more than just activities, they are a lifeline. For Mohammad and Anwar, football has always been their shared passion, the one constant that followed them through every change in their young lives.

On the centre’s football pitch, where local leagues and intercamp competitions bring the community together, the boys found not just a place to play, but a sense of direction. Each match gives them something to work toward, something to dream of. And their dreams have no limits. As they lace up their shoes, they imagine one day joining the football heroes they watch on screens, playing for top clubs in Europe.

But football isn’t the only place where their confidence has grown. Through the centre’s other activities, the twins were introduced to theatre, performing in a silent play for World Children’s Day, their first experience on a stage. They have since performed several times at school. “It showed us that we can shine anywhere,” Mohammad says with a shy smile. 

Their mother, Malak, has been on her own parallel journey. Widowed while her children were still young, she had to rebuild life from the ground up. UNICEF’s incentive-based volunteering programme opened a door, giving her a role in a camp kindergarten where she now works as an assistant, caring for other families’ children while providing for her own. For Malak, it was more than employment. It was purpose, dignity, and the confidence to envision a better future for her children.

Together, the family represents something the camp's statistics don't always capture: not just survival, but construction. The building of skills, routines, ambitions, and a sense of belonging.

“We feel excited coming to Makani every day,” Anwar concludes. “And when we score and celebrate together, it is the best feeling in the world.” 

UNICEF's Makani programme in Jordan, which supports vulnerable children across the country, is made possible with the generous support of the European Union.