“Help from strangers gives us hope”

“She still has sadness in her,” Ahmed Hassan says of his wife. He says she hasn't been outside the house ever since they were displaced.

Ahmed and his family lost everything -- pictures, clothes, memorabilia -- when they were forced to leave their home in Syria to flee the shelling. They left with the few bags they were able to carry on their shoulders, and went to live in Damascus. It was not easy for his wife and three children.

Ahmed is trying to provide for his family as much as he can but he’s having a hard time. Everything is very expensive. Jobs are scarce, but that doesn't mean he doesn't keep on trying.

He said that a few months back, he was told of an organization in Damascus that supports families. “I went to meet them and it was the best day since we arrived,” he says.

With support from the Humanitarian Coalition and Canadian Foodgrains Bank, the Mennonite Central Committee and their partners started providing the family with food parcels. They are also accompanying his wife and children in their new lives.

For Ahmed, who thought nobody was paying attention to their needs, this means that there are better days ahead for their family.

“There are no words to say because very few were looking at us and our children, and to see this help coming from strangers gives us hope.”