MEET LEILA

Leila and two of her sons in their tent

We are from Homs in Syria. I have six children, five boys and a girl. I was pregnant with my younger son Abdallah when my husband disappeared. He was a taxi driver. This was 12 years ago and until now, I have no idea what happened to him. I haven’t been able to issue a death certificate because a part of me is still hoping he is alive and will come back one day. Because of that and because I am not officially a widow, none of the organizations are giving me any aid here. The only help we get is from the church.

I left Syria a year after he went missing. I came to Lebanon alone with my children. They were still very young! We stayed with my sister and her family for around six months. We were all living in a single tent. We kept trying to work and we had to take the children with us. The UN did not help much. Children need lots of nutrition, medicine, stationery, clothes. It was not easy. We sometimes had nothing to eat but bread.

Over the years, our situation became more and more difficult. We still live right by my sister, who has eight children! Currently, my sister’s husband is the only one with a steady job. Of course, his little income cannot feed us all. In exchange for living in this camp, we sometimes work in the field for almost nothing. The owner of the land gives us $1 for six hours of work, which is peanuts. Just for electricity, we pay between $30 to $40, and the municipality is also asking us to pay something.

Because of our dire situation, I cannot afford to put the children in private schools, and I can’t even afford the transportation and material for public school. When things were a bit better, my children spent a few years in public school, but they did not learn anything there. It was a total waste of time.

Our main concern is to be able to send our children to school so that they receive a good education.  So, with the church’s learning center in the community, we have been so lucky! We learned about it when they had just started it, years ago. Our children were among the first to enroll. We then encouraged more parents to enroll their children there. Two of my boys currently go to the education center. Last year, Abdallah was first in his class! He is now 12 years old. Mohammed who is 13 also goes to the center. My two older boys also used to go to the center and graduated from it. Since, they have been able to continue their education by transitioning to the school for older children created by a former teacher from the church.

At the center, they offer a very good education. My children are always happy to go there, especially that everything is provided for them: clothes, books, stationery, bag, transportation. The center makes things very easy for both the children and parents. The bus even picks them up right from home. If they feel that our children need additional support, they take care of this in the classroom. Teachers are always paying attention to them and informing parents of everything related to their children. My sister and I went to school until grade 4, so we can help our children a bit with their studies, but not with their English lessons! We are so proud they are learning not only Arabic but also English.

Besides the school, the church is helping us meet other needs. We receive two food parcels every month, because we are a large family, and I am alone with the children. The boxes usually include oil, rice, sugar, flour, condensed milk, yogurt, fava beans, tomato paste, pasta, burghul, lentils, and some canned food. It is almost enough for the entire month.

The children love everything in the boxes. When they see the boxes, they throw themselves to the ground. The boxes really are a life saver, because most food items have now become unaffordable for us, especially chicken and meat, vegetables and fruits, or any dairy. On top of the food boxes, we can only afford bread. It is the basis of our diet, and we need at least 3 to 4 packs each day. We are 11 sharing this small tent, because we are also hosting a family who has been displaced from the south of Lebanon since October 2023.

We cannot go back to Syria. Our house there was destroyed and to this day there are no jobs, food, or medicine there. At the same time, we are very afraid of the escalating tensions between Syrians and Lebanese, especially that we have children. We tried to register to be resettled abroad but we were never approved.

Our people badly need prayers and help. We ask everyone to pray for God to make things better for all Syrians and for our region. We also want to tell the people who supported us that we thank them sincerely for the food, and for helping our children. We pray for them to remain able to help people like this.