Just this past week, we have received several stories from the PLC team and we are excited to share them with you. These are stories of people, families, and friends who YOU are directly impacting. Families who are displaced and without a home right now, but PLC is working hard to repair and rebuild so they can live in safe and warm home.
Lina is one of the many families PLC is working within Eastern Allepo. She graciously shared her story with one of the team members at PLC. Read her story below.
Tragedy struck early in the war for Lina Mohammad Dib Sawwas. Her 25-year-old son, Ahmad, was killed in 2012 when fighting broke out near the Hanano district in northeast Aleppo. “He used to put a smile on my face,” Lina recalls. “He was the light of my house and my whole life. When I came home and didn’t find Ahmed I burst into tears and ran around in the streets, and I felt a great depression. The most difficult thing is losing one’s child, the most valuable person in my whole life. I am a mess because of what happened with my son.”
Since Ahmad’s death, things haven’t gotten any easier for Lina. She fled with her family to Tartus, where she worked cleaning chalets on the beach and later washing dishes in restaurants. She endured frequent insults from homeowners and restaurant staff, and what she recalls most from the past five years is “unfairness and lots and lots of crying.” “I got really tired of my situation and all my life,” she says. “I got depressed and desperate.”
The work was hard, but she had to make a living so she could keep food on the table for her family. Lina has three surviving children from her first marriage--a 10-year-old son, a teenage daughter who is divorced, and another daughter who has a baby of her own and whose husband is serving in the Syrian military. Lina’s second marriage produced another child (now four years old) while the family lived in Tartus.
When the Syrian army retook the Hanano district in early 2017, Lina and her family returned to Aleppo. Any joy they might have felt at their homecoming was quickly dampened when they saw what was left of their house. “It was a disaster,” Lina says. “My house has no windows or doors, no chair, no cup, no spoon--nothing at all.”
Like many Hanano residents, Lina returned to find her home so badly damaged that it is unlivable.
Out of necessity, the family took up temporary residence with Lina’s sister and her family. “My sister’s house is not calm because our families are too numerous,” says Lina. And while their hosts have a roof over their heads, they are by no means well off--Lina reports that her sister could only afford to eat one meal a day when she took them in.
Lina yearns for stability in her life. She says she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and suffers from severe back pain. She believes she needs an operation to relieve it, but cannot afford to even think about such a procedure.
Lina is desperate to fix her house. She knows hosting her family has a big impact on her sister’s household, and she wants to take pressure off. “I wish to live in peace and to feel the warmth and security of my house,” she says. “I hope happiness finds its way to my heart soon.”
It is because of you that Lina's home will be repaired and she will have a safe place to raise her family. We are all looking forward to hearing the rest of this story once her home has been repaired!
More stories to come.
