MEET FATOUMA

Lana at our partner education center after the ceasefire in Lebanon

My name is Fatouma and my husband and I have a son (15) and four daughters (13, 10, 7, and 3). We have been in Lebanon for 13 years, but we are originally from the Raqaa governorate in Syria. After we got married, we first got our son, and then Lana. That is when the war in Syria started. After that, we fled to Lebanon while the border was still open.

Even before the war, our situation was very difficult. My husband used to be a construction worker, but he hasn’t been able to find a job in a very long time and he has health issues. Because of that, I have to work and take my children to work with me. We work in the fields, earning only five dollars a day for five hours of hard physical work. It is a very painful job, especially for my 10-year-old daughter who cannot carry heavy things. It is difficult, but all the family relies on our small income.

During the recent war in Lebanon, you can’t even imagine how worse our situation got. There were many bombings in our area, but we couldn’t flee anywhere because we had no car or money. At some point, one of the bombs targeted a building that was close to us, and our tent started burning while all of us were still inside. We were still in shock from the shelling, and I got injured in the leg from a shrapnel. I tried to get my phone, but I could not even do that. We lost everything we had, including the little money we had managed to save, and all our clothes. We ran out of our tent without shoes on. My younger daughter, who is three years old, is still heavily traumatized by the sounds of the shelling and the burning of our tent. It makes me cry to think and talk about that.

The church’s education center has been life transforming for Lana. She has been enrolled in it for several years. At now 13 years old, she is the only one from her siblings who goes there. Her sisters were too young to register at the center, and her older brother was in public school. He didn’t benefit much from it though. The education center here is much better. I myself don’t know how to read or write. I would like to learn, but I never had neither the time nor the opportunity. Because of this, it is my husband who helps Lana with her homework.

Because of the war in Lebanon, the education center didn’t open as early as planned, so we took Lana to work with us in harvesting potatoes. She was crying all the time and saying she missed the center. When the center reopened after the ceasefire, she started begging us to let her come back, because she wanted to continue studying. She loves to learn, she sees her friends here. She has been coming here since she was a little girl, this is home to her, she loves everyone and feels loved. We registered her back, but it is very difficult on us.

Before coming to the education center, she also benefited from the “Little Friendly Space” (early childhood education center) just like her three younger sisters. The LFS is right by our tent, and my daughters are very happy when they go there. I can also relax, because I know they are in a safe place, learning good and important things, which makes me happy for them. When the LFS was damaged in the bombings, at the same time as our home, the children were very affected. They suffered a lot psychologically and emotionally, from the fear of bombings and from our displacement. So, when they rehabilitated the LFS, they were very excited to go back, and to regain a sense of normalcy. As I told you, my youngest daughter who is 3 and a half years old is still traumatized by the war. I just registered her to the LFS so she can heal and feel better.

Besides the education center and the Little friendly space, the church has made things easier on us by helping us a lot. They have been giving us food vouchers, and additional food parcels during the time of the war, to help us cope. After our tent burnt, they helped us rebuild it and they gave us new mattresses, blankets, pillows.

Please pray for us, because our situation is really difficult. I have no idea what I will do or how the future looks like. I cannot buy anything for my daughters. We have nothing here anymore, there is no work, and everything is expensive. In Syria, we have nothing anymore either. The new situation in the country is very uncertain, and we honestly don’t have much hope.

But we are thankful that the people from the church are very kind to us, that Lana can come to this great education center, and that my other daughters benefit from the LFS. At least one of my daughters can study, and the others have a safe place to go where they also learn and feel better.