The Traces of War Are Wiping Out…

Gaziantep city, hosting more than 150K ESSN beneficiaries, became the second home of the refugees who migrated from their country because of the Syrian War. This time, our household visit is to 14-membered Yusuf Family, which has been chosen among more than150 K beneficiaries and 25K household.

Hüseyin Yusuf’s Family consist of 8 people (6 kids and parents). He also has 4 sisters and their father lives with them. The family who lives in a ground floor of 3 floored apartment in slum. They pay TL 800 rental fee monthly for this house.

They are greeting us with a rush in our household visit. Outside of the house had been recently cleaned. There are 6 little kids at the house. 3 of them at school age. They are looking at our team with shiny wide eyes. Then we notice that one of the kid’s back was wrapped up in a nylon pochette. But a while later we realized that the pochette was used instead of a baby diaper.

All of the Yusuf Family’s livelihood burden is on Hüseyin’s shoulders.

Hüseyin tells us that when they first arrived to Turkey from Aleppo they experienced a lot of difficulty. He could not perform his former job as barber like he used to do in Syria, so he worked in temporary jobs such as factory worker in a cartoon factory.

We first notice the emptiness of the house in our household visit. There were no house belongings/furniture at the house. Only belongings they seemed to have consist of mattresses which lay all over the house randomly. Yusuf starts telling that, “Our economic situation was good in Aleppo. We had our own barber shop. My sisters worked in a novelties shop. Our livelihood was good. When the war started, we all thought that it will end soon; but we had to leave everything behind and immigrate when the conflicts reached to our neighborhood in Aleppo.” After he told their migration story he looks down, holding his tears.

Yusuf family has been receiving the ESSN assistance for 9 months. ”

Hüseyin tell us that their life was changed after they started receiving the ESSN assistance. He also adds that nothing is very bad anymore and they can buy their basic needs thanks to KIZILAYKART.

We see market packs at the entry of the house. He points the market packs and tells us “Thanks to ESSN Programme.”

They insist us to stay for the dinner while we are about to go. They do not shy away to share their limited resources despite all of their hardship. But we kindly decline their invitation.

His face lightens when he tells us, “Turkey has done lot for us. We never saw any discrimination among them. We are mostly welcomed here. Therefore we are full of gratitude toward Turkey and KIZILAYKART. Our kids are very young and they are not aware of everything but we miss our country very much. We will return to Syria when the war ends.”