Planting Peacer Profile: Dina Sha’er

My name is Dina Shaér, I’m twenty two years old, I live in Amman, the capital of Jordan, I’m fresh finance graduate from the University of Jordan which is also in the capital Amman, i have one brother who is 28 and one married sister who is 27.
I am a representative of Jordan; my duty is to tell more about my country in order to replace the wrong stereotypes with the right ones and present the problems that faces Jordan, at least that’s what I thought I’ll be doing, then I recognized that my duty is not just to tell about myself and my country but to learn about countries I’ve never heard about, to hear the other side of the single story that the media present and to open my eyes more about issues I’ve thought about before!
The reason behind me being in Canada is because I’m a participant in a program called IVEP; International Volunteer Exchange Program, this program is cultural exchange young youth from all over the world to serve in Canada and the US, however, I’ve been placed to serve in Calgary, Canada for one year in the Mennonite newcomers centre.
Jordan is very peaceful place to live in; this became a target for the refugees to settle down in although it’s a small country. The problem of poverty, homeless and lack of water existed long time ago, but it was controlled and minor, but the big issue started after the United States invaded Iraq, and the rich Iraqis started to immigrate to Jordan, they came with a lot of money because of the resources they own like oil and fuel, so they took over the industry as they can afford to pay, as a consequence, the prices, mortgages and life became so expensive and unaffordable according to the Jordanians, moreover, the financial crisis was like cherry on top for this problem; low salaries and high prices.
There used to be three layers of people’s financial situation; rich, middle and poor, but now it’s either rich or poor, the middle layer is about to be diminished.
Most Jordanian citizens love show off in term of cars, houses and the brand names even if they live in hell and they don’t have money to eat, they think by doing that they will be accepted in the community and otherwise they won’t. This is a huge problem because admitting the problem is a part of solving it, however, the government is trying to solve this problem but not as effective as if the people strike or demonstrate peacefully to push the prices and inflation down.
At the end, i would like to thank MCC who gave me the opportunity to be part of this wonderful peace implanting team.