“We almost feel like we’re in our own home.”

Alifa smiles as she recollects her life in Syria. “I had many kinds of trees that I tended,” she says. “I grew different types of vegetables, and took care of sheep, chickens and cows. We were mostly self sufficient; we only needed to buy bread and sugar.”

Alifa and her husband Mansour once had a small farm in Tall Hamis in Syria’s Hasakah Province.

“Our cotton farm was a family business, started by my grandfather,” says Mansour. “It’s gone now — destroyed in the conflict.”

The couple, who have five children ranging in ages from 8 to 27, live in Domiz 1 refugee camp near Duhok, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Domiz was the first camp to open when Syrian refugees began crossing over the border in April 2012, and with a population of more than 41,000, it remains the largest.

The camp has the bustling air of a small city. Shops are stocked with everything from wedding dresses to cell phones. Restaurants turn out a steady stream of kebabs and schwarma. Three-wheeled motorbikes buzz up and down the wide streets.

Water and good sanitation are the foundation of any city, and about 1,800 people are supplied daily with fresh drinking water.

And, for families who are not connected to the water system, water is trucked in, a system that is sustained thanks to the generous support of CERF and Germany’s KfW development bank.

Mansour plays a role in ensuring that the water is distributed in the most efficient way.

“At 9 in the morning I go to the main office of the water repair team and I take care of maintenance. At 3 in the afternoon I go back to the operation here in this area and make sure the water is evenly distributed among the tanks,” he says. “I’m busy every day.”

It’s quite a different life for a farming family. But they are coming to terms with the hand that fate has dealt.

“The camp is better than when we first came,” Mansour says. “At first we lived in a tent, and then we constructed our own home, latrine and bathroom, and we feel happier. We almost feel like we are in our own home.”

“Although there’s no room for a garden…” Alifa adds.