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Displaced Syrian women sew corona protective masks in a camp in Maaret Misrin in the Idlib region
Photo:
AAREF WATAD / AFP
Omer Hajj Abdo thinks he's lucky now.
"A lot is changing right now," he says.
He knows that happiness is a big word and that change is a big word, but he says that these two words fit very well with his life at the moment, which in the past few months has mainly consisted of waiting and enduring.
Omer Hajj Abdo, 43 years old, is an Arabic teacher from Teqad near Aleppo.
He fled his village with his wife and six children in winter.
Assad troops, like hundreds of thousands of others, had bombed them from their homeland.
The family found shelter in the northern Syrian province of Idlib.
There, in a camp, she now lives in a tent.
As refugees, the family experienced the winter, the corona pandemic, then the closure of schools, and an economic crisis that drove up food prices in the region and left many people hungry.
The front line of the Syrian war continues through the actual home of the family, there is no turning back.
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Omer and Khadija (left, with headscarf) Hajj Abdo with four of their six children
Photo:
Private
DER SPIEGEL has accompanied the Hajj Abdos ever since and publishes the records as diaries.
They are created from videos, WhatsApp calls and messages that an agent translates on site.
Omer Hajj Abdo describes how it works: to settle in the in-between that the flight brings with it.
Tuesday, August 4th 2020:
"Yesterday was my first day of work at a Syrian NGO. From 9 am to 3:30 pm I look after children here in the camp who have suffered physical or psychological trauma while on the run. My teacher training helps me a lot at work. The contract is initially limited to by the end of the year. I earn 300 euros a month. That takes the pressure off our family, we can now cook and eat more variedly again, sometimes a piece of meat, not just bread and bread. I call it luck. "
Monday, August 10, 2020:
"It's hot here in the camp, 39 to 40 degrees. There's no air conditioning or anything like that. It's at least as hot in the tent as outside. When there is wind, it gets cooler, but it transports a lot of dust. Everything is then with one thick layer, we have to clean often. We also use more water than usual. I usually fill up our water tank once every five days. At the moment, the volume is only enough for two to three days. A cold shower is the only option for the children to cool off. So we shower them more often. And we have to drink more too. "
We ask Omer if we can also speak to his wife. To hear how she is doing. How she looks at the local situation. At first Khadija Hajj Abdo hesitates, then she picks up the phone. "Hello, this is Khadija, can you hear me?" Says a woman's voice. Khadija Hajj Abdo is 36 years old.
"As a woman, I feel the war in such a way that I have been pushed from stability to absolute insecurity"
Khadija Hajj Abdo, mother of six children
"I've been married to Omer for 16 years and have four daughters and two sons. We have to be a good team, Omer and I, otherwise it wouldn't work. Omer takes care of the outside world, I take care of the children and everything that has to do with the household.
I suffer a lot from the escape situation.
As a woman, I feel the war in such a way that I have been pushed from stability to absolute insecurity.
I am responsible for ensuring that we have a clean home, that there is something to eat, that the children grow up healthy.
But I can hardly do that in the refugee camp. "
Thursday, August 27, 2020:
"When our house in Aleppo was bombed - I was so proud of our house - and we moved first to the old school and then to this tent, I was paralyzed at first. How am I supposed to raise my children here, I thought . But it works somehow. I've made new friends. A couple of women from the neighborhood and I, we help each other. Without them I would have collapsed, especially at the beginning. "
In the middle of the conversation with Khadija Hajj Abdo, the WhatsApp call breaks off. The internet connection to Idlib is unstable. It takes a few minutes, then Khadija calls back. She walked a few hundred meters on her cell phone to a place where the reception over the Turkish network was quite good.
"There are a few registered corona cases in northern Syria, there are supposedly none in the camp. But I don't trust these statements. The health system in Syria is bad, we only have a few tests. Most of the cases will definitely go undetected. Because of the pandemic the schools in the camp are still closed. I very much hope that our children can learn something again soon, they like to learn. And if there are already shortages everywhere else, then my children should at least be allowed to study. I want them to be able to go out and Show their talents. That my children are free one day. That should also apply to my daughters. "
Monday, August 31, 2020:
"I used to cook in advance for several days. That is no longer possible. We don't have a refrigerator. That means a lot more work for me than before. Women are particularly stressed in this situation of fleeing. I have to cook fresh every day, have No breaks. We can't keep leftovers either. What we can't eat in one day goes bad, especially in the heat. So the bottom line is that, although we have less than before, we still have to throw something away more often. That's absurd. "
Thursday, September 3, 2020:
"I heard that our house near Aleppo is occupied by Turkish soldiers. They are fighting from our village against the Assad people, whose position is about seven kilometers away. I have prepared myself for us to stay here in the camp for a long time A return seems impossible, our village is a front line of the war. And at that time I could hardly take anything from our house. "
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