Learning from Jordan: Health, Healing, and Hope 

Today, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Jordan to witness how the country stands tall as a regional hub for humanitarian and moral leadership — from its partnership with the World Health Organization to its frontline role in the medical response to the crisis in Gaza. 

The day began at the World Health Organization’s offices in Amman, where The Duke and Duchess joined a high-level roundtable convened by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, alongside UN leaders, donors, and humanitarian organisations. The discussion focused on Jordan’s leadership in regional health response; the urgent need to integrate mental health into primary care; and the mounting pressures on health systems as a result of conflict, displacement, and declining global humanitarian funding. 

Jordan continues to carry an extraordinary humanitarian responsibility – supporting refugees and displaced communities from across the region, while strengthening care for its own people. Throughout the conversation, participants highlighted that mental health must be treated as a first-response priority, not a secondary consideration, and that frontline responders themselves need sustained support. The couple listened as partners described the widening funding gap facing health and humanitarian services, and the growing importance of philanthropy, advocacy, and cross-sector collaboration in sustaining care and preventing worsening crises. 

In the afternoon, The Duke and Duchess travelled north to Za’atari Refugee Camp to visit the Questscope Youth Centre, where creativity is being used as a pathway to heal. They met young people from Syria participating in music, photography, sport, and art therapy programmes – spaces where expression becomes a tool for resilience, connection, and recovery. 

From the recording studio to the photography classroom and art gallery, young people shared how these programmes help them process trauma, build confidence, and imagine a future beyond war and displacement. Many of the mentors leading the sessions are refugees themselves, turning lived experience into leadership and hope for others. 

Next was a moving visit to The Specialty Hospital, where Harry and Meghan met with Palestinian children and families who had been medically evacuated to Jordan for urgent treatment, mostly gunshot wounds and blast injuries. In conversations with clinicians and caregivers, they heard about the extraordinary demands placed on hospitals responding to trauma and complex injuries, while continuing to serve local communities. They heard from a father about the continual bombings in Gaza just this week. The visit underscored both the scale of human suffering, and the compassion of those working to meet it. 

Archewell Philanthropies has supported partners facilitating medical evacuations for children affected by the conflict in Gaza, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and frontline health providers. Seeing this work up close brought into sharp focus the life-saving importance of coordinated international action and the quiet heroism of healthcare workers who show up every day for patients navigating unimaginable grief, trauma and loss. 

Across every visit, a shared truth emerged: humanitarian response is not only about delivering services – it is about restoring dignity, nurturing potential, and standing with communities over the long term. From WHO’s coordination of regional health response, to youth centres fostering creativity in displacement, to hospitals caring for evacuated children, Jordan’s partners are showing what sustained, compassionate response can look like when the world chooses to act together. 

At sunset, the Duke and Duchess joined World Health Organisation officials and Embassy staff at the British Ambassador’s residence for Iftar, the breaking of the fast, as day one closed with a renewed sense of urgency and resolve. The challenges facing Jordan and the wider region are immense, but so too is the leadership, ingenuity, and humanity of those working on the frontlines. Archewell remains committed to supporting partners who centre care, dignity, and long-term recovery – and to advocating for a global response that meets this moment with compassion, courage, and action.