‘Now I have hope’ - SNJ speaks to two refugee families who fled war in Syria and set up new home in Stroud

The first family, who will not be named, came from Aleppo, the largest city in Syria which has been the epicentre of the most intense military conflict of the bloody civil war.

Fighting here between Syrian opposition and the Russian-backed government of Bashar al-Assad broke out here in 2012 and came to an end at the end of 2016 with the defeat of the rebels after years of stalemate.

During this time large parts of the once thriving city have be turned to rubble and dust, with thousands of homes destroyed and a civilian death toll rising into the thousands.

Before the conflict the family, who have two daughters aged seven and five, lived a comfortable life with an apartment and a car and were surrounded by friends. The father, referred to as Mr H, is a highly skilled specialist electrical engineer.

But when the war engulfed the city, they were forced to flee their home and join thousands of others escaping the violence and bombings. The family applied for asylum and were finally approved to move to the Five Valleys seven months ago.

“Stroud is very nice and the people are every nice. I really like it here,” said Mrs H in rapidly improving English. “People always help me if I need help of I have problems.

“My children are in school in the Stroud. They like school very much. They always want to be there. They get sad when it is holidays and they like learning. This was the first time we have been to the UK. The air in England is so clean, my daughters love it.”

Mr H added: “We have a nice home here. We like it very much. I like to go to the centre and look and go to the park near college. It is very nice to go with the children and go walking. It is very beautiful.

“We live five minutes from the town centre so we can walk and go to the shops. Stroud is very different. Aleppo is very big, here is very small.”

While we agree not to go into too much detail over their lives in Aleppo and the things they witnessed there, it’s clear from the expression on their faces that the memories of home are stained with pain.

“It is very different here because in Syria my work is good,” he added. “Here we are starting again. In Syria I worked with electrics. Here I want to work. We do voluntary work in Cheltenham with a charity that does IT help in Africa.”

His wife added: “I like voluntary work, I meet a lot of nice people, talk and improve my English, but I want to do more. I want to work and not sit in my house.

“In the future we want to stay in Stroud. We like it here. People are very nice and we have friends. Everyone smiles and everyone is nice to me. My children have friends at school too.

“My daughter does not want to go back to Syria. She sees the television and news and sees Aleppo and Damascus and she cries and is very sad.

“She says to me: ‘mum I don’t like Syria, I like it here. I want to live here, I want to go to school here and be a student here’. Now our future is here.

“Thank you people of Stroud and thankyou to government. You help me, help my children for to school and live in home.

“Thanks to you now I have hope. One day I hope to repay and work in England for the Government.”

In the community they have a small support network of friends, other families and officers from GARAS, the Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

We met at a special weekly coffee morning which is held in Stroud for the families to socialise and integrate with others in the community, which is attended my representatives from GARAS.

The organisation has been helping the families get a foothold in Stroud, attend courses to improve their English and get involved with volunteering opportunities across the county.

Alongside this they also provide a ‘safe space', activities, information, advocacy and advice on health, housing, education and employment.

Another of the families they have helped are Mr and Mrs A and their two children, a boy aged 10 and his sister who is 12.

Having only moved from Syria in December, the family are the newest group to move to the town. Though they too are immersed in classes to learn the language, with only a few months practice they need a translator for much of the interview.

“We came to Stroud two months ago. Our children are happy here," they said. "They like school. One is at primary and the other started secondary school. Here we have some snow, but in Syria they have a lot of snow in winter. We now go to college to learn English.”

With a smile they use they use the word Shouei, which translates as ‘slowly, slowly’, “We have also been to the library and the park and the museum. We liked them very much.”

Their translator for the interview is a 22-year-old man from the war-town Darfur, another refugee who has made Stroud his home in the past year.

Like Syrian this region of Sudan country has been strangled in the grip of major armed conflict between the Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, meaning the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency since 2003.

Refugees have been flooding out of the country since the Sudanese military, police and the Janjaweed, a militia group, carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs.

This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.

Mr A, who again cannot be named, fled the country with his family and came to the UK via the jungle in Calais, and has now lived in Stroud for four months.

Smiley, witty and with a clear aptitude for language, he has also been taking courses to improve his English at Stroud College and is keen to better integrate and find work.

“I like it very much here in Stroud,” he said. “I have my house and live with a friend. I learnt some English on my journey from Darfur.

“Calais was very difficult, but there were many friendly people. Now I want to work. I want to build things and be a painter and decorator. I have also been volunteering.

“I like it here in Stroud. But my family are in London. One day I hope to move there to be with them.”

Adele Owen from GARAS said: “We are delighted at the welcome Stroud and Gloucestershire has been giving families and individuals and helping to rebuild their lives in our communities.

“Since 2015 Stroud has been committed to making a difference and signed up very quickly to being involved in this initiative to offer sanctuary to families who have suffered so much.

“The many different people who are offering their skills and time in a variety of ways and those who have offered their properties into the scheme are all helping to make this possible.”

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The SNJ was only allowed a set list of questions to ask the families during these interviews. Initials in last names have been changed.