Homes in ruins

Difficult times

With his wife and two children in tow, Jamal left his house and continued to move across the country, escaping the fighting that would inevitably follow them.

“It was an extremely difficult time. We fled three times since the beginning of the war,” said Jamal.

Jamal and his family first moved to his wife’s old house, then to his brother’s house and then to a displacement settlement. After years of living without a place to call home and moving between cities and towns, Jamal and his wife decided to go back to their house and try to rebuild their lives. What Jamal did not expect was the destruction he came face-to-face with when they arrived home.

The fighting in Syria left more than 47 per cent of the houses with damages, making them in a lot of cases inhabitable. Jamal’s house was badly damaged and they had no access to even the basic needs to live in dignity. Without any windows or doors, the family was forced to survive Syria’s very cold winter by covering the windows with blankets.

“When we returned to our house, there was nothing to protect us from the cold nights. We had no water and no electricity; it used to bring me to tears watching my wife hugging my shivering children on long winter nights,” added Jamal.

House in ruins

As the fighting reached their neighbourhood in Homs, Ahmad and his five children were forced to flee their home and found safety in Rural Hama in Syria. Similar to Ahmad, more than 6.9 million Syrians were uprooted from their homes and now live in internal displacement across the country.

“We had to flee and ended up sharing a small house with my brother’s family and mother to be able to afford rent,” said Ahmad.

However, ongoing economic sanctions in addition to a worsening economic crisis and currency depreciation have led to record levels of food insecurity and a continuous increase in the prices of basic commodities across the country.

“Living expenses and rent were too expensive compared to our salaries, which depend on the daily hours we work,” he added.

Paying rent and living away from home was no longer an option for Ahmad.

“We were very excited to return to our house which we own,” he said.

Upon arriving, Ahmad was shocked to find his house in ruins.

“Words cannot describe my happiness when I returned home, but I knew we would face problems,” said Ahmad.

Their house had no water, no electricity and no basic equipment. Without access to basic necessities, Ahmad and his children could not live there.

With humanitarian funding from the European Union, DRC was able to help Ahmad. In coordination with authorities in the area, DRC supplied, distributed, and installed water tanks in Ahmad’s neighbourhoods, ensuring people in the area have access to clean and safe water.