"May Allah not let anyone in the world experience what we went through."

On this cold and snowy winter morning, by taking all our precautions within the scope of Covid – 19, we are visiting Meri family in Yenimahalle, Ankara where they live.

Enver Meri and his wife Buseyna are a Syrian family living together in 3 generations with their children and grandchildren. The family forced to flee from Syria to Turkey in 2015 and lived in a temporary accommodation center in Turkey until 2018. After the camps were consolidated, they preferred to move to Ankara to city life instead of living in a different temporary accommodation center.

Having difficulty in adapting to the big city life, the family has some difficulties at first in terms of language barrier, rent, and paying bills of utilities. Buseyna Hanım expresses those days "We have been living here for two years. Learning Turkish is difficult for us after this age. It is very difficult for us not being able to speak Turkish. We live as if we do not have any tongue. Back in camp, we did not have this difficulty since all our neighbors spoke Arabic. Mostly our children help us for our outside chores. But when they are not around we go out by ourselves and come back home as soon as we meet our needs without saying anything to anyone"

Her son and daughter in laws help Buseyna who is 58 years old, and 56% disabled. After his wife finishes her sentence, Enver Meri continues by telling how ESSN helped them in great way in meeting their needs and adapting the city life. He expresses "Financially, everything was easier at the camp. But here, we have to pay our bills and rent"

As we talk to him, Enver’s grandchildren whose ages varies between 8 months to 4 years approach him. One of them pulls his hair and the other jumps on his lap not letting him speak.

It warms our heart to see Enver playing with her grandchildren next to the hot stove on this cold day, where Ankara was covered in snow. Enver continues to tell after his grandchildren leaves him and start playing with each other.

He tells us that he was an imam back in Syria and at the same time, they had a grocery and a local store that sells glass products and souvenirs. The family had a very good life circumstances there. They came to Turkey under very difficult circumstances and it was difficult for them to adapt the life in camp.

Buseyna Hanım interrupts him and adds “Thanks God most of our children and grandchildren are beside us, but we have still two more children and grandchildren in Syria. May Allah not let anyone in the world experience what we went through. Escaping the war and leave family members behind is the most difficult think in the world” her voice starts to tremble before she finishes her sentence. We could only agree on her prayer. Witnessing how ESSN Programme supported by European Union changed the lives of people makes us proud once again.

We end our visit after answering the family’s questions about the ESSN Programme and disability reports.

This article covers humanitarian aid activities implemented with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of the European Union, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.