Making Home Away

So I sat them down and told them: the five of us are here, me, you and your father, wherever the five of us are, that place should be your heaven.
Discover their stories

All Stories

Rima

a hand you can’t bite, you kiss!
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Nour

Simple things can create a home atmosphere...
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Hayat

The lack of electricity is hardest.
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Amira

For us, we do not consider Syria as a home anymore.
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Nemat

Do you accept to go to Canada?
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Iman

Look, my hairs are standing. Because I feel like my body is over here, but my mind is back in Syria.
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Hassan

Syria was a nice, safe country, but it felt a temporary stop from fleeing Iraq...
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Fatima

...those utensils feel like home to me.
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Karam

It would make my wife and family sad if I were to die.
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Mahdi

The worrying is multiplied when you have a family.
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Nabil

There is nothing worse than injustice.
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Yara

Our faces and hair look different here
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Marwa

Honestly, I can’t handle it.
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Farida

I had just delivered my baby girl. She was one month and ten days old...
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Samira

We trusted them and they didn’t give us any trouble, until one day, one of them wrote a report...
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Inaam

This is my fate and I have to accept it. I even started planting a garden.
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Suha

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Lama

May God help you with your water!
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Khawla

My older son remembers...
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Jumana

I am going to leave all my friends.
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Nasim

It is a bit better now but it is still bad
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Sabiha

My husband was bad (to) me. Now he is better...
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Warda

pink roses... remind me of Syria.
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Amira

I felt that we were (going to be) staying here for a while, so I started decorating.
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Mai

...because I was mentally exhausted...
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Khadija

It is better to suffer at home...
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Nehal

Here we are, four years later
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Maysoon

Hope is always there, of course.
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Mahdi

One plane was circling overhead...
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Rabia

These are the things that we do to keep us going
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Maha

... nothing was left for us there
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Zaynab

Nothing has a taste
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Layan

We came with the clothes that we were wearing
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Wafa

We were hoping to go to Za’atari camp, but they assigned us here.
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Omran

I planted it and I lived in it.
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Hussein

Of course, here it is different...
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Wafa

The problem is that I forget a lot these days
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Mahasen

we stayed for two years in Jordan and they were very difficult years...
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Nairuz

So he was the first of our family to leave Syria, when he was 18 years old.
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Safwan

I worked as an Uber driver only to improve my English, to get out of the house, and to make some money
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Hallat

the priority was for Lebanese children...
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Nabiha

... if you ask anybody here, they will tell you that the key to this country is the English language.
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Hanan's husband

But here in Canada, it is different...
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Ibrahim

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Mohammed’s mother

Even our happiness feels different without the whole family.
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Abu Ali

All night, I sent them a reply of "Yes", I sent them 50,000 "Yes" messages.
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Assad

The fighters used to come to the house and ask the children their names.
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Amira

It’s hard to change house.
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Dareen

I didn’t understand my case worker properly...
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Sabiha

... the years are coming quickly quickly.
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Jamila

I said to my children, maybe we lost the way now...
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Amira's Departure

Every day I told them yes, no.
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Wafa

They asked me “Where are your documents?”
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Farid

Dignity is above all, I told you.
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Nabil

But the first step is to learn the language...
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Mirvat

Nature and tourism and all that.
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Azida

The incident that made me decide to leave Syria...
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Yara

I want one thing, that God protects my family.
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Tuba

To be able to live here one has to recreate a home as much as possible.
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Eliana

...it will not be easy for them to go back...
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Fuad

I am considered a ‘wanted man’.
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Karam

Life in here is very very hard.
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Jemal

They treat us in a developed way here...
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Atiq

... having legal status brings you a different life ...
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Abiha

It was the Greek police. The Greek police imprisoned us.
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Munira

At least we have a roof above our heads now.
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Faheem

When I heard the sound I held my granddaughter and ran outside to the olive garden where I sheltered under an olive tree.
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Menna

You know when you ask me about my feelings of moving and settlement, a line of memories moves in front of my eyes. Sometimes I spent time thinking about that, and sometimes I cry when I remember. But I am thankful.
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Houda

Syria was a heaven on Earth, but Syrians now cannot afford the bread. People stand in lines for four or five hours to get one bag of bread. There is no electricity or gas; life is very hard there
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Saifeldeen

I believe everyone can create his own home. You can make your own home by the relations that you develop with people where do you live. It is not exclusive to a specific piece of land.
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Nour

My nieces did not have the chance to live or remember Syria. They only have memories about [city in Iraq]
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Dina

Dina describes what home means to her, and how she finds glimpes of it while away in viewing things like the sea.
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Hassan

“What I really miss the most is my family home in Syria. It was a spacious home with a garden. The second thing I feel sad about is losing my job as a teacher; the respect and admiration I enjoyed among people…I was proud of my job”.
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Yahia

Yahia comments on concerns over the future, while also referencing the difficulty of integrating in cultures that do not emphasise community and kinship as strongly as those he felt in Syria and Lebanon.
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Younis

We suffered in Syria, I do not have any feelings towards the idea of going back. There is even nothing left for me to visit again. There is no home or even cities
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