Faheem
Faheem describes the moment he knew that his family could no longer stay in the "safe" area they had travelled to within Syria:
“After we fled Dara’a we stayed in a village 20km away, and we heard the planes flying over for a long time. One plane was circling overhead. When I heard the sound I held my granddaughter and ran outside to the olive garden where I sheltered under an olive tree. I prayed to God because I was convinced that I was going to die. The plane hit the house behind me and when it was over I thought I would look back to see my house all shattered, but it was the neighbor’s house that was destroyed. I told my family to go and check on my neighbors, but they found them in pieces. I decided to leave then.”
Statistics, such as those maintained by UNHCR and other agencies, may allow us to understand the scale of the refugee crisis, but they do not capture the individual moments - such as this one described by Faheem - in which Syrian refugees took life-changing decisions to leave their country, often in life-or-death situations.