Syrian Refugees: The Things We Carry

What three Syrian refugees took with them as they fled

As 2016 began more than 65 million people across the world had no home. They were officially displaced.

Never before had so many people been uprooted from their homes by conflict and persecution. Tragically, during the past 12 months that number has only increased, as wars in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, and elsewhere have forced families to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs.

What would you do if you had to flee your home? What would you take with you if you had just minutes to decide? Millions of refugees have faced that agonizing choice. Here’s what some decided.

Nizar Rastnawl, 5

What he carried: Spiderman costume

“When I wear the costume I feel strong.”

Nizar was only three and a half when his family fled the fighting around his village in rural Hama.

“The bombing came, and the army came, they destroyed our house. They shot fire. They destroyed all my toys. They didn’t leave any pieces of them.”

Sitting around tea and Holy water brought specially from the Well of Zamzam during a recent pilgrimage to Mecca, his father explains that the Spiderman costume was newly purchased when they had to rush from their Syrian home.

It’s a purchase that the five-year-old recalls with a smile.

“I remember we were walking, me and my Baba, and we saw Spiderman — we went into the toy shop and I found it. When I got the costume I felt strong,” he explains happily.

But Nizar didn’t have long before he had to pack his new toy to flee the bombing.

“When the plane was bombing us I was scared,” Nizar says, holding his mask on his lap.

“My mom brought the clothes out to pack and then we found Spiderman. I put it in the plastic bag, I took it to the living room, they shouted at me, I ran to find mom, we opened the door, we got in the car and we left.”

On the road, the family narrowly avoided being struck with a much feared barrel bomb, leaving his parents and siblings terrified. Nizar was more concerned about his prized outfit and some pistachios he had saved according to his dad Marwan.

“Every day there was bombing, tanks, shelling, and clashes around our village of Muriq — both sides were fighting to take control of it. When the planes came with barrel bombs, you couldn’t hide, we had to leave,” he says, adding that his young son only agreed to leave if he could take his costume.

Now Nizar goes to a Syrian school in the Turkish town of Kirikhan where he loves being with his new friends and playing on their rocking horse.

“Here there are toys, ice cream, and sweets.” The downside according to Nizar: “They don’t have swings… yet.”

Nizar’s family has been relying on support from International Medical Corps for medical care and health advice as they adjust to life in their new home. They have lost so much and their future remains uncertain as the fighting continues in their homeland.

However, Nizar believes he has got it covered. In the spirit of a true superhero, he plans to ‘fight against the bad people’.

Zakaria Alssayadi, 40

What he carried: Brother’s t-shirt

“When I hold it in my hands, it’s bittersweet.”

The plain white undershirt does not look remarkable, but to Zakaria it is the last connection he has with his brother, who lost his life to cancer several years ago.

“I miss him so much. He wasn’t just my brother, but my friend. He was everything a friend should be. We would chat about anything and everything. He had a very good heart, he was generous — a very good man.”

When the bombing began in Zakaria’s village of Halfaya in Hama, Syria, he ran with his wife and young sons to take shelter in their basement.

When it didn’t stop, they fled, grabbing the first things that came to mind.
“When we left we took just the important and necessary things. Passports, money — and I immediately remembered my brother’s t-shirt.”

Zakaria’s brother Mohammad died of cancer before the war and it is a grief that Zakaria lives with to this day.

He keeps the undershirt in a white plastic bag in his bedroom at the bottom of his wardrobe. It’s plain and white, but Zakaria unwraps the garment with utmost care.

“When I hold it in my hands, it’s bittersweet. I don’t know how to explain it. I feel happiness because it’s something of his. I feel like he’s next to me, but I also feel sadness because he died. It still smells of the hospital. His smell, it’s still there,” he says, holding it close and fighting back tears.

Zakaria now lives in Kirikhan, with his family, but the terrifying journey has left a mental health impact on both father and son.

“Bombs were raining down on us, there was shrapnel everywhere. My son was so confused. For thirty minutes he was just lying on the ground trembling. What could I do? How can I hug him and make the fear go away?”

Zakaria suffers from depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder alongside debilitating back pain. He regularly meets with International Medical Corps’ mental health teams in Kirikhan, who organize psychosocial support consultations and provide him with the medication he needs.

“Most of the time it really helps,” Zakaria says. “I try to forget everything — I try to stay relaxed. But sometimes I just get so frustrated and angry. Sometimes I feel like there is no hope for the future, no hope for ever returning home. I look around me and I think, ‘This is where I will die.’”

Leila Yonnis, 22

What she carried: Fashion design sketchbooks

“Every idea I’ve had since I was a child is in here.”

Leila remembers the day that ISIS closed in on her hometown of Kobane perfectly.

“It was October — we had been restless for two days, waiting for news. Then we heard on the radio, ‘They are coming.’ “All I could think of was, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening.’”

Shortly after the rockets started falling on the town, which sits on the border with Turkey.

There was no time to pack as the rockets began falling around her home. Leila looked at her collection of treasured dresses — pink, red, and black, some with glitter, others she’d saved up to buy and still more she had designed herself.

They weren’t practical for running through a muddy minefield to cross into Turkey.

“I grabbed my fashion sketchbooks,” she said. “I had to save them so that I could make my designs again. Every idea I’ve had since I was a child is in here.”

Leila could only take a few of her books with her. “I picked the ones that had some of the weirdest ideas I have ever had,” she explains from her office in Turkey. “They aren’t like anything else I’ve designed. I call them ‘futuristic’ designs.”

An English language graduate from Aleppo University, Leila is now in Sanliurfa, working for International Medical Corps as a rehabilitation program officer, focusing on the day-to-day management of activities.

“It is my dream to one-day study fashion design. Kobane has such an amazing fashion culture. I want the world to see it.”

Read what Amal and Ahmad brought with them when they fled Syria

Across the region, International Medical Corps has been working to address the health and health-related needs of Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and more recently, in Greece. Last year, our teams provided over 1.4 million medical consultations to Syrian refugees — about 40% of which were for children under 18, who are among the most vulnerable.

Support or learn more about International Medical Corps’ work with refugees.

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“The Things We Carry” is a project documenting support provided in collaboration with European Union humanitarian aid.