Voices from Syria: Thirteen Years in the Shadow of Conflict

Amira*  sits with her youngest child in a tent she calls home, she is one of the 11 million people who have been displaced amid the Syrian conflict, which is now entering its 14th year. 

She points out a rug on the floor – which provides some warmth against the harsh Syrian winters - and a brown handbag that holds her ID; seemingly everyday items, but they were the only things she could grab when she was forced to flee her home amid conflict. 

She told us: “We had to come here seven years ago, things have been hard in that time.  “Our life is not good, we are always cold in the winter. We haven't anything without money. 

“I have six girls and two boys, the girls are working, to provide the family with money, if they work, they will provide us with food to eat dinner. If they don’t work, we will have to go to sleep without any food.” 

Amira first met Concern last year, when a team visited the camp for internally displaced people where she lives. Her family was selected to receive multi-purpose cash assistance support.  

She said: “Last year Concern distributed cash, about $100, to all the tents in this camp. I used it to buy some goods for the house, like sugar and rice, some clothes for the children. 

Two of her children have also participated in Concern’s Non-Formal Education programme, which receives funding from The European Union. 

The NFE centres are divided to teach children aged between eight and 13 to primary level, and older children who are aged between 14 and 17, who are also at a primary level of education but are too old to attend classes with the younger children.  

The NFE programme is an accelerated programme where children can learn the basic literacy and numeracy skills to rejoin a formal primary school at the end of the course. The programme also provides homework support for children who have graduated to formal schools and are at risk of dropping out. 

Amira explained that the nearest formal school is far away and she worries about the children’s safety if they had to travel. 

She added that she dreams of her children enjoying a comfortable life, like she once did. 

Amira said: “I hope that my children can change their lives and not to live the life that we do now, I don’t want them to live in a tent. 

“Previously, we had a lot of happiness in our old house, we had land that we used for agriculture, where we could harvest crops. 

“In our old life, we had stoves in our homes, so we weren’t in the cold. We had electricity in our homes, but here you don’t have anything. 

“Our life used to be very happy, but nowadays we are not happy because everything is a challenge. We feel that we are people that no one cares about, nobody is thinking of us.”
 

*Name has been changed