Her Routes and Roots: “You See Me Laugh,” HH’s Story
Her Routes and Roots is a series on journeys of displacement undergone and told by young women, focusing on their resilience and pivotal moments of strength. Stories are drawn from in-depth narrative interviews conducted during Her{connect}Her, a global voice program by Footage Foundation.
(HH is from Syria and currently in Greece. Her story has been edited for length and clarity).
HH: You see me laugh all the time regardless of my difficult story. I have experienced many issues that may kill someone. But, I am still alive and laugh and do not think about it, because I want to go on.
I am 17 from Damascus. I want to do this interview to help other people when they read this and learn something for their lives.
We had the best life in Damascus. After that, the war started… Suddenly, we had to leave. When we left Damascus, we passed some villages and went to Turkey. It was a very hard way to pass, because we met many people with guns. We had to run for nine hours, and it was dangerous for us without eating, drinking, or sleeping. Then, we arrived in Turkey and stayed there for one week. Then, we came to Greece. At the beginning, we were in Mytilini Island (Lesvos) and after that, we came to the Piraeus Port.
When I arrived there and saw the tent I had to live in, it shocked me, because I was waiting to find organizations that would treat us and give us things… I started to cry, and I wanted to go back. I did not want to stay there.
After that, we came here to Skaramagas Camp. I worked as a translator and in the food section, where they give food out to everybody.
I hope to leave Greece to go out and continue my studies in school, continue with my sports I like, study to be an anthropologist, and go everywhere in Europe. I want to go to China, America, London, and NYC is very big I understand. I want to learn to be a hairdresser. I will have two jobs to make good money and have a big house, a car, and a motorbike.
Because of my dreams for my life… I cannot lose my hope now.
Doctors say laughing is very good for the heart. That is why I want to laugh everywhere and as long as I can.
[In Damascus], I woke up at five am, ran for one hour, then swimming, came back home, showered, and went back to school. After school, I came home to eat and then back out to night school for English language lessons. After that, I went to the gym for kickboxing, came back home, showered and got ready, and went out with my friends.
Two Ramadans have passed while I have been in Skaramagas.
When I saw [refugee camps] on TV, I never thought I would leave Damascus, a beautiful city.
Watch the digital story HH created while participating in Her{connect}Her here.
“No one goes anywhere alone, least of all into exile — not even those who arrive physically alone, unaccompanied by family, spouse, children, parents, or siblings. No one leaves his or her world without having been transfixed by its roots, or with a vacuum for a soul. We carry with us the memory of many fabrics, a self soaked in our history, our culture; a memory, sometimes scattered, sometimes sharp and clear, of the streets of our childhood, of our adolescence; the reminiscence of something distant that suddenly stands out before us, in us, a shy gesture, an open hand, a smile lost in a time of misunderstanding, a sentence, a simple sentence possibly now forgotten by the one who had said it.” (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Hope)
Series editing and art direction by Kathryn Weenig, Impact Consultant
Illustration and branding by Lillian Parry, Design Intern
Interview conducted by Dr. Kristen Ali Eglinton, Executive Director
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