The 19-year-old Aya from Syria is white like snow. She has a beautiful pure white face and great eyes. Wafaa, resembles her mother; she is Aya’s three-year-old daughter who has two lovely dark brown eyes. While we were eyeing Aya warily, she was chasing Omar, her two-year-old son.
Therefore, we started our conversation with Aya’s spouse, Abdul. The first question was his! He asks about our profession and when its his turn to answer the same, he gets up from his chair with excitement saying: “What do you want? I can make it!”. He is a carpenter and willing to make everything! Abdul has been to Greece before; he was afraid that war would break out in his country and that he would lose his job. As it happened.
He still remembers that during his initial stay in Greece, a woman had told him that whoever “drinks the ‘Greek water’ never forgets Greece and returns”. “I will never forget that”, he says. Besides, this is what happened to him as well. He liked Greece that much and when he decided to flee his country due to war, the only country he wanted to go was Greece.
Today, Abdul has created a beautiful, bright home for his family in Athens, which is one out of the six solidarity homes. Abdul and Aya attend the Greek language courses provided under the framework of the “Solidarity Homes” program, which is implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of the organization Help Refugees.
This is also only the start for Aya who lost the opportunity to finish school in her country and now dreams of doing so in Greece. She has an even greater dream; to become a paediatrician! Abdul, Aya, Wafaa and Omar participate in all the activities implemented for the members of the six families in the solidarity homes and they especially love long walks like those to the sea. Aya dreams of having a car of her own one day as to drive far and get to know new places.
Aya talks about her homeland with nostalgia; she is missing it. But she is willing to start a new life in Greece, a life that surely, as she says, will be better for her children.
Later in the afternoon, Aya will meet Gofran and Ariz -neighbors- to take their tea together. Their relationship was developed through the “Solidarity Homes” program and all family members enjoy the company of each other. They have something in common; a hard past they want to leave behind, a safe present they are now sharing through the program and a future full of positive prospects for which they are willing to try.
Help us support more Families to find a safe Home – A Solidarity Home. Click here: https://www.solidaritynow.org/solidarity-homes/
*Solidarity Homes is a program implemented by SolidarityNow in collaboration and with the support of the organization Help Refugees. Through the program, which was initiated in June 2017, accommodation is offered to the most vulnerable population groups – Greeks and refugees – on the sole criterion of their urgent need.