Letter from Syria: “This is our land and it’s our proper to return to our properties”

A few weeks ago I was talking on the street with people who were escaping from the war when a family approached on an old three-wheeled motorcycle where a woman was in an advanced state of pregnancy, with a baby in her arms and three small children on the other side . They were carrying a few plastic bags with firewood and clothing, and the children appeared terrified and exhausted. The husband told me that his wife had gone into labor when they were fleeing the bombing. They did not know where to go.

I managed to shelter them in a room shared with another family. The mother gave birth there and three days later they had to move to an area that was bombed again, for which they were forced to flee once more. Imagine, that mother, who has just given birth, without clothes, blankets or food, fleeing from one place to another with her children during the winter. This is the life we ​​Syrians have today.

Since I was young I have had a strong sense of justice and determination to change things. I have spent my life fighting conservative customs and traditions, including within my own family, where many of them were against me for wanting to get an education. I worked as an Arabic teacher and got a teaching degree from the university. Now the war we are experiencing and its impact on the most vulnerable, particularly children and women, provokes the same thing in me as when I was young: the need to find justice.

This war has created millions of victims, although some suffer more than others. I am deeply saddened that many of the children Do not know any other reality than this conflict and the fear that it causes you. An entire generation has been damaged and I don’t know if this can be repaired. Many little ones have lost the opportunity to receive an education. My son goes to secondary school when it is open, but he always tells me that he wants to drop out because he is depressed in the absence of future opportunities; We never know when we will be forced to flee or even when we are in danger of dying.

Children have no toys, no education, not even a peaceful or healthy life. I see hope in their eyes, but it’s useless as the war continues. A girl came up to me and said that she wishes her store had a real roof instead of a plastic cover. The reality is that, although it saddens me to say so, a Syrian boy’s dream is to seek shelter under a tent.

We are trying to respond and help as much as we can. Through my work with World Vision and reaching out to other aid agencies, humanitarian workers and volunteers, I do my best to help families who have nowhere to go. We provide shelter for them in mosques, schools, tents, family homes, and even my own home. I recently had four displaced families living with me. The conflict has destroyed essential public services, including healthcare; there are no drugs or medical supplies due to the bombing of clinics and hospitals.

Loss of income and employment and rising costs of basic foodstuffs are driving Syrians to despair. Right now, the conflict has taken its toll on communities fleeing violence often for the second, third, or even fourth time. Me too. Some days I feel like there is no use sharing what I document on a daily basis.

I am a Syrian woman, humanitarian worker, but I cannot provide people with everything they need, the situation we live in is overwhelming. I try not to lose heart thinking that something helped and I give encouragement to the people around me. I aspire to speak and convey the voices of the Syrian people around the world. I still have hope for a better future despite the difficulties we are experiencing. I believe that God will not abandon us. As humanitarian workers, we only ask for peace and an end to the war. This is our land and we are in our right to be able to return to our homes, those we built in their day ”.

Ahlam (not her real name) is a humanitarian worker, mother, grandmother and community leader in Idlib, in northwestern Syria. She fled her home in 2012 due to the conflict and began developing her profession while living in a camp for displaced persons in 2013. Last year she began working at the NGO World Vision and since then has trained more than 6,000 humanitarian workers in protection of the childhood. She wanted to publish this story.