Page 34 - MY Book - My Voice

Qamar, a refugee from SyriaOne day in January 2016, at The Mada Center, I met Qamar, a mother of ve. I was told that she is coming every Saturday morning to attend a woman knitting and talking group run by one of the social workers. Qamar is completely covered in black, but reveals her face, because we are only women in the room. The expressive face of a lively lady appears, more than willing to tell about herself and her situation. I wanted to get to know her a bit, to be able to understand the background of some of the Syrian refugees in the workshop. How they live, and their daily challenges.On her lap sits her youngest daughter, who has a problem with her back so she is not able to walk properly. Qamar tells us that her family is refugees from Syria, and that it is di cult to nd a decent place to stay, and hard to provide food and necessities for the family.For the time being, they live in an abandoned o cebuilding together with other Syrian families.MSSCF has o ered Qamar a place at one of the primary schools run by the foundation, for two of her children. She chose her two tweens, Zeinab and Abdel. Two other kids are staying at home with their mother, but now and then, they participate in activities at The Mada Center. The oldest child, a boy at 15, is supporting the family economically, in addition to what they receive from UNHCR, by working in a juice bar.Qamar’s husband is almost blind, and hasn’t been able to work for several years. Some months ago, he traveled illegally to Europe. Qamar keeps in contact with him on the cellphone, and is waiting to be able to join him. She is impatient and wants to take her children and go to Germany. She believes that in Germany they will get a house, nancial support and treatment for their health problems.In February, one month later, I am back in Saida and want to meet Qamar again and see how she is doing. I have made an appointment and are going to visit her in the condemned o ce building where they are living. I am waiting together with the project manager at MSSCF, Dalal Abdul Rahman. It seems to be di cult to get in touch with Qamar. It turns out that she is not at home; she is busy providing some required papers from UN to be able to take her daughter to healthcare.After a few hours waiting, we visit the building anyway, just to see what it is like.Many Syrians are living in uncompleted buildings or condemned buildings like this one. Many places one can see laundry hanging out to dry, tv-antennas, and fabrics or plastic put up to create some privacy. We enter a huge building in the middle of the city center. The entrance area is lled with garbage. We walk the stairs to the top of the building and hope the building is safe. It is dark, and electricity cables are hanging randomly.When we reach the top oor, we see what obviously is a living space. Broken doors and windows have been repaired using plastic and whatever materials they could get hold of. We meet some children and eventually some of the mothers as well. The children playing around are32