Home in the eyes of a Syrian girl
In 2009, I decided to follow my dreams and my ambitions to travel to the UK to complete my studies. I remember telling myself “After my Master’s degree, I want to have 2–3 years of work experience in the UK, then I will return to Syria”. When I moved to the UK, I used to complain about having to spend Christmas or Easter in Syria. I wanted to use most of the holiday season to travel the world.
“Syria is always there,” I told myself,” I want to discover new places, new cultures.”
In July 2012, my family fled Aleppo, and since then none of them have been back to Aleppo. They are now settled in Sweden. When I visit them in Sweden, I always ask myself, “Is Sweden my home now? Is it enough for me to feel at home if my family lives in Stockholm? Is this enough to make me feel safe and feel that I really belong to this country? What about the UK? Is having a job in the UK, and friends that I consider as a family enough for me to feel that the UK is ‘a home’ now? And if these are my feelings, how do my family and fellow refugees feel?”
I asked my friends from Syria what does “home” mean for them? All the answers were the same: Home is where we belong, our friends, memories, and where we built our dreams and ambitious. Home is where we practice our traditions and feel safe.
Thinking of this definition, it’s very hard for refugees to apply it to their new “home” in the settlement countries where they relocate. Making the decision to leave home is not easy! Refugees have been forced to make this decision and it requires special courage to leave your comfort zone, taking the risk of leaving everything behind for the possibility of potentially having a better future or an alternative safe space. Majority of NGOs are focusing on providing the basic needs from food and shelter to education. However, after having basic needs met, the feeling of homesickness, depression and anxiety increases, becoming stronger as a result of trying to adapt to a new culture, learning a new language, and adjusting to a new climate.
The host community in the UK are doing their best to help refugees adapt to their new environment. These communities, such as EmpowerHack, were created as a response to the refugee crisis. Its role is to highlight the challenges faced by refugees and to create solutions using technology. Another example of such communities, the Syrian communities that already exist in a host country, is “Syrian Ladies of Montreal”, a Facebook group that was created by Syrian women who live in Montreal to help their online followers adapt to their new lives. The role of Syrian communities is critical to create a sense of home. However, their contribution is small compared to the host community’s. It would be great to see more involvement from citizens of host countries help refugees settle down, regardless of their religious or political point of views.
The importance of technology lies in its power to bring Syrian committees, host communities and the refugees together. By building solutions together, we are empowering refugees and giving them a voice, a chance to contribute to society and helping them overcome the conditions that make them feel vulnerable.
Feeling powerless and helpless in the face of conflict can be paralyzing. Volunteers can’t solve that. Tech can’t solve that either. But what we can do, is enable communities to help themselves and open source technology allows us to do just that, being a driving force for change in the community and lives of Syrians.
p.s. I added pictures of what I have left of Syria. I haven’t been home since 2012. Still, I kept some stuff with me from my last trip, my SIM card with all my friends’ numbers (most of whom are not in Aleppo any more), Syrian money, socks, and my throw. All of them, have a smell of home.
