A Syrian’s Story

“I lived in Damascus and ever since the war started, every person started looking for a place to go live where there are no wars. If you have kids, would you be able to close your eyes and allow them to go through this kind of things?

The war started in Damascus so I left and we went to Latakia to live. I stayed there for two years -and then the war also started over there. So I moved to Afrin. I stayed in Afrin for four months, and then I went to Turkey and stayed there. I tried to cross the border six times while I was working there in Turkey. All my savings went into trying to cross the borders. So I went to Izmir (where most of the refugees go to be smuggled to Greece) but I didn’t make it so, I decided to go back to Afrin in Syria. I stayed there for another seven months and then I went back to Turkey. It took me four years total to do that – back and forth, back and forth – because I never made it. So I would go and work and then pay the money to try and cross but it wouldn’t work. And twice I tried go to Bulgaria from Turkey, but it also never worked. The reason we tried to leave Turkey is there’s this thing going on there right now where they kidnap kids and open them up and take their organs and sell them. They do that especially to those people who don’t have papers. That’s why we left. We got scared for our kids. If a person did something to me, I couldn’t kill that person. But if someone came into my home and hurt my family, that’s the only time I would actually hurt that person.

So I left my family and I got close to Thessaloniki, but the Greek army caught me. They took all of my belongings and threw them back into the water. We were sixteen people that got caught. They had tied our hands, so one of the soldiers cut one of the men’s rope and then gave the scissors to him to free the others, and then they left.

So I went back to Turkey with my family and worked, and the last time we tried, the whole family went through.

There are so many organizations in Thessaloniki, but they didn’t accept us. We got rejected by them. Some families were accepted and placed in a camp – they got their papers and even got their cash cards – but with us, they threw us away. So we went to Athens to try to find other organizations but there was no luck for us. We even went to the Kurdish committee in Athens to ask for a place where we could sleep, and we were sent here (to a camp in Lavrio).

Now we are looking for an organization that can help us fix our papers so that we can also start getting cash cards and help to move on. We’ve approached almost every organization in Athens already but they’ve closed the doors; they’ve sent us away. We’re looking for an organization that could help us.

I don’t want it for me, I want it for my kids. Every day they look up at me and say, “Can we have ice cream? Can we have this? Can we do that?” And I have to tell them no. I don’t want this for myself, I want my kids to have some kind of order.”

*Adnan and *Amena have four children, ages nine, seven, eighteen months, and four months. They live in one room, along with their cousin, who is somewhere in his late teens or early twenties. Adnan says they couldn’t have made the journey without him. The camp where they are currently placed was originally run by the Red Cross, but as many relief organizations have done by this point, they gave up and left when they ran out of funds. Now this unsecured ruin of an apartment building hosting about 400 refugees has been left stranded. The government no longer gives out cash-cards or resources to the refugees there in order to discourage them from staying, but as is made clear from Adnan’s story, leaving is extremely difficult.

Adnan and Amena need money for food, diapers, milk, and medical care. Without cash cards the family can barely, if at all, afford these necessities. Amena has been feeling unwell for months, and has been unable to see a doctor to know what’s wrong. As the mother of four – including one whom she breastfeeds – her health is crucial to the whole family.

Adnan and his family need money for transit. They need to go back and forth to Athens as many times as needed for appointments, including vaccinations for the children and at the asylum office for help with their documents. Athens is two hours away by bus. Even with an appointment, refugees often wait all day in line at the asylum office, only to be told that they must come back another day. Adnan’s family has been unable to follow up on appointments because the little money they have was depleted by just one trip to Athens, so to come back another time is impossible without our help.

Finally, Adnan’s family needs money for a lawyer. Those fleeing from Syria – a dangerous, war-ridden country – are meant to be first priority to receive government aid. Regardless of the situation they are fleeing, large families are also meant to be high priority to receive aid. Yet, Adnan’s family has managed to fall through the cracks. This is not uncommon. They need a lawyer to help them attain their correct and full documentation so that they can get the medical help they need and be placed in an actual apartment in Athens.

Please consider donating to this beautiful family whom I fell in love with in just one interaction. I sat in the tiny room they share with peeling paint, graffiti, broken and stained bed frames, and no air-conditioning (in 95-degree weather) and was shown selfless, genuine kindness and hospitality by humans who have been through so much and have so little. My love for them pales in comparison to some of my team-members, who have shared countless meals and teary, pain-filled conversations with them over the past five weeks. In such a short time, Adnan, Amena, and the children already consider them like family.

Needless to say, we are all burdened with this family’s burden, because their situation is horrific and urgent. I ask that we who have an over-abundance to give would do so for those who do not and yet give everything they have.

*names are changed for protection