Dara and his family had a good life in Syria. He was working as an electrician and had just finished building a house. But they didn’t get to live in it. The war changed everything.
Everyday life for the family was completely disrupted. They had no way of earning money or feeding themselves and were struggling to cope in the chaos that was getting worse every day. When Dara’s sister’s house was hit by a rocket and completely destroyed, they knew they had no choice but to flee. Dara was particularly worried about his daughter Rania who has severe physical and learning disabilities and would have no chance of escaping bomb blasts or sniper fire.
They quickly left their home for Iraq with Dara carrying Rania on his back. She was so terrified with this traumatic ordeal that she stopped eating and drinking. But life was even tougher in Iraq where they had to live in an overcrowded and extremely chaotic camp with 500 other families. Rania would constantly trip and fall in the tent and suffer from horrific seizures. There was no medical help available and Dara thought the worst may happen, he told us “I thought she would die”. The camp was literally killing Rania and Dara knew they had to leave.
Will you make a change to help ease the changes of families like Dara’s?
But arriving in the UK brought more traumatic changes. Dara and his four young children who had already been through so much now had to cope with rebuilding their lives in a new country where they had little understanding of the language or how things work. Thankfully, our case worker was on hand to help ease the changes and create the safe new start the family desperately needed. They helped find the right school for Rania that met her needs and arranged a gentle settling-in process for her. We also arranged for Rania to have medical assessments and her seizures that were so severe have now stopped.
Without our support, families like Dara’s would struggle to adjust to life in a new country, especially after the violence and horrors of war they’ve witnessed. You could help ensure people seeking safety have the vital support they need to take the first steps to a new chapter in their lives.
Please will you make a small change and give a monthly gift to help us be there, month after month, to support families like Dara’s as they begin a new life?
5
a month could help train a volunteer asylum guide, to support people seeking safety to understand their rights
10
a month could help find a safe room for a family seeking safety who’ve lost everything
30
a month could help us to continue to campaign tirelessly for the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK