MEET SANA

Before the war, we were living a simple but good life. My husband worked as a carpenter and we were blessed with two sons, who are now six and three years old. But the small village in the Beqaa valley we are from was heavily bombed since late September. I was 8 months pregnant with our third son at the time, and we had to flee from our home when the first bombings started, panicked and in a hurry.  

Because we could not afford to rent a place, and because many people were hesitant to host us since we are from Shia background, we spent a month and a half in our car, in Zahle. No one helped us, other than the church. After I first met someone from the church, I went there and they gave us clothes for the boys. A few days later, they gave us four blankets to stay warm in our car, as well as two boxes of ready to eat food, since we were not able to cook anything.  

In the meantime, I delivered my son. As you can imagine, the heavy stress I was under during this difficult time had repercussions on my health and the baby’s health. Because of the shock I experienced, I developed diabetes and I have to make tests to see if the baby has diabetes too and if I still have it as well. Unfortunately, contrary to with my other sons, I don’t have any milk supply to breastfeed him, so I need to get him some baby formula which is very expensive.  

Since the birth of our son, and thanks to the help of some friends, we have been able to rent a small place that costs 150$ a month. But we can’t afford it and we don’t want to stay in debt to our friends. Ultimately, we will need to repay them. Our house didn’t collapse, thank God, but was heavily damaged in the bombings and needs a lot of repair, including all the windows’ glass and doors. We can’t afford it right now, especially not all at once, so we are not able to go back there quickly.  

We still don’t know how we will be able to get by in the future. I hope the church can keep on helping us. The people here are very nice. They treat us with a lot of respect and dignity, not like other NGOs who yell at people and make them feel bad. We named our son Elie, which is a Christian name, to honor the Christians who have helped us during this tough time.  

May God make everything better in the future, like it was before.