Fadia is a twenty-two-year-old Syrian girl with a great talent for studying. She and her family arrived in Latakia a few years ago. She had to leave Aleppo, her city, when it was besieged and bombs fell in clusters on buildings in the neighborhood where she lived. Thanks to the help of some friends, she managed to get the means to escape and find herself safe, but homeless, in Latakia, a city on the coast that suffered serious damage after the earthquake.
With the support of Pro Terra Sancta, which has been following various aid projects for the Syrian population for years, she was able to find a home for herself and her family (her little brother, mother and grandmother). Today he studies marketing and management at the Faculty of Economics.
We don’t know where to go
Her house is located in an area affected by the earthquake and, despite the fear, they continue to live in it. “We’re not sure if it’s accessible, but we don’t know where to go. International aid is not coming here. There are those who brought small prefabricated buildings to take some pictures and after a few days they took them away”.
At the beginning of the war in Syria she was only thirteen years old. “I remember those days with great fear, we were afraid of having to flee and when the clashes got closer to our neighborhood every day, we ran away.” She stops, there is a background noise that gives a bit of annoyance: “it’s the mice that run around the pipes. They are popping up everywhere and we are afraid of new diseases.” Pharmacies are running out of medicines and the health emergency is becoming a real danger.
She keeps telling. “I dream of finishing my university studies, in order to serve the people and my country.” Fadia is among the few young people who want to stay. “I could never leave my family. My grandmother has several mental problems after what she went through, and my mother is alone.” Fadia is a little moved when she thinks of her father, who left the family a few months ago. “No one knows where he went. He probably fled because he could no longer bear the situation. I don’t hate him for it, but this is the condition I have to face and I try to do it with the utmost determination.”
Study, graduate and try to look for an opportunity in this disaster.
The support of Pro Terra Sancta
Thanks to the help of Pro Terra Sancta she can pay for his studies and have a food package a week. Even the youngest sibling who is in middle school can continue to study and live. Her grandmother suffers from serious psychological problems, and after the earthquake it got worse. “When we heard the earthquake we immediately ran away from home. With a little effort, because we had to help the grandmother who no longer walks well (and live on the fourth floor ed).
We immediately went to the reception center which was close to the convent. We were scared, I took my brother in my arms because he was too scared.” Fadia and his family stayed out for a few days. Although the fear of returning was great, they did not have many alternatives. “The engineers didn’t come here to understand if the houses are back to being usable or not. We are here, waiting for someone to listen to us.”
The situation slowly returned to normal. If we can call it normality within a war that has lasted twelve years. Fadia does not give up, and hopes to continue studying, to graduate and start working to help her family. And not to leave his country. But in these conditions it is really difficult.
By Andrea Avveduto | proterrasancta
