My city was the first to be occupied by the Free Army, making it a target for the regime. This had many consequences for us. The educational system, for example, was under the influence of the regime, because we were students from Zabadani, we did not get enough points at the Abitur exams, which is why we failed, although according to our performance we deserved a much higher score. My dream was always to study architecture, I couldn’t do that with the low score. So I went to Lebanon for a while. Before I left I got to know a girl and she took her Abitur together with me. I fell in love with her from the very first moment. But I could not tell her because everything before me was still uncertain.

In Lebanon I searched for her name on Facebook, I found her and we wrote each other. After a while I confessed to her that I had fallen in love with her. At first she was reserved, but later a love developed between us. I worked in Lebanon, but then had to return to Syria because of my military duty. But if I had not returned to Syria at that time, I would not have been allowed to enter, so I went back to Syria. My friends told me that the points on the Abitur examination were all corrected, I got my actual score and was finally able to study my dream subject of architecture. I met the girl and she became my great love. Since my studies began later, I worked in Lebanon for another year and then, when I return, studied together with my love. She was in the same university as me.

We studied together and I asked her to marry me. We were both engaged and wanted to go to Australia, where my sister lives. In Syria I could never have afforded to get married. The costs for my university were so high that I spent all my earnings on it. My family came especially from Lebanon for the engagement. We waited one year for the visa for Australia, unfortunately we never got one. Meanwhile the problems in my city became bigger and bigger, the Syrian regime attacked. Because our city was a red rag for the Syrian regime, every student, whose identity card showed the place of origin Zabadani, was taken by the soldiers during controls. War, war, war, everywhere was only war. One could no longer walk normally through the streets. For this reason I decided to leave my homeland and flee to Germany. Unfortunately my great love had to stay in Syria.

If I would tell everything, I think even stones would cry if they heard of my story. I fled with the brothers of my fiancée to Germany, we arrived there in a camp and stayed about three months. Arriving in Germany, I only felt relief. We had an exhausting journey, especially the way via Hungary was hard. All I wanted was peace and quiet and sleep, just peace and quiet. The feeling of relief left me quickly, because my great love was still in Syria. I was very afraid for them, because the regime meanwhile took with it the families of the men who fought against the regime. They locked them up and locked them away from food and water. Many families died of hunger. In Germany I was very worried about my wife’s family because they lived near Damascus. The worries made another person out of me, usually I am always calm, but because of all the worries about the family, I became aggressive, restless, people did not recognize me anymore. My wife and her family fled with a smuggler. On 15.12.2015 my great love arrived in Germany.

When I saw her, I lost every fear and every worry. It was over, the burden is gone. She is here, with me. Of course it hurt me that my relatives were still there and the people of my country, but my life was now with me and my parents in Australia. In Germany it was very difficult in the beginning, I got after one year my stay. The search for an apartment was also very difficult. Today we live in Wesseling. We started a language course together, my wife and I. After the course I enrolled in the Technical University. I was accepted and would like to study architecture here. My wife was accepted at another school and would like to study civil engineering. My dreams for the future, I would like to finish my studies and do a Master. I would also like to visit my family but at the moment I am not yet allowed to leave.

I can tell the people who have not shared their story yet, don’t be afraid anymore, it’s over, we live in safety now. To tell my story means for me to have gained time to give a small part to the project and to give other people the possibility to understand me better. I have only told an excerpt, and if this helps to put ourselves in our position as Syrians better, what would happen if we were given more time to speak? How many people would then understand us better? With my story I hope to have made a good start.

Storyteller’s name:  Mohammad Al Katli
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Syria
Sex: m
Age: 26

Svenska: Jag heter Sham och är 12 år gammal. Jag kommer från Aleppo och kom till Sverige för en vecka sedan. Jag har ritat min familj som är utspridda i olika länder.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

My name is Bahaa and I come from the city of Najaf in Iraq. I was born in 1993.

I arrived in Sweden in October 2015 and fled from Iraq in August the same year. I have 3 brothers and 4 sisters. In Iraq, I was an activist for human rights an also on social media. This was beside my work at a library where we sold school materials.

It was very difficult for me to leave Iraq and my family, as we are a family that spend so much time together. It is difficult if someone leaves. I made the decision to leave Iraq on June 2nd.
I prepared everything and booked flights on August 8th from Najaf to Doha and futher to Istanbul.
To be able to leave the country I said that I was invited to a human rights workshop in Istanbul. This was a white lie, as you usually say.

I arrived in Istanbul and contacted my dad. He’s educational and understands young people’s thoughts. My goal was to fly to Europe to create a better future for me, my family and my children. I told this to dad and he said goodbye and take care of youself. Knowing that my parents supported me, I went to the city of Izmir. It is the closest point to the Greek border.

After several attempts to get over the sea, I managed to reach Greece. I arrived at the island of Samos and there I stayed for 8 days. Then I walked through several countries and finally I ended up in Sweden.

My second birth was 5th of October 2015. That’s when I arrived in Sweden. I got a residence permit in March 2017. My life has started and my dreams grow for every day. Right now I’m studying. I am interested in journalism and I own a news site the Arabic language in Sweden.

I have big dreams and will have to work hard to reach them. But it’s hard to be far from my parents. Especially during this difficult time and during Ramadan. We were used to being together daily. It’s not easy to be far away from your family.

It’s so easy to give up in the beginning. It’s easy to fail in a new country. But if you have a dream then you should fight to achieve it. Here the days go very fast. You can easily feel bored and long for your home country and wish to return. I hope new arrivals try to get into society and create something for themselves. In Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya there is war and many years are needed to rebuild the country. I hope we can take advantage of this opportunity and create a future for us and for our children. I hope we will give a good image of the Arab tradition in Swedish society.

Svenska:  Jag heter Bahaa och kommer från staden Najaf i Irak. Jag är född 1993.

Jag kom till Sverige i oktober 2015 och flydde från Irak augusti samma år. Jag har 3 bröder och 4 systrar. I Irak var jag en aktivist inom mänskliga rättigheter och även på sociala medier. Detta var vid sidan av mitt arbete. Jag jobbar på ett bibliotek där vi sålde skolmaterial.

Det var mycket svårt för mig att lämna Irak och familjen, eftersom vi är en familj som är mycket tillsammans och det är svårt att någon ger sig av. Jag tog beslutet att lämna Irak den 2: a juni.

Jag förberedde allt och bokade flyg den 8:e augusti från Najaf till Doha och vidare till Istanbul. För att kunna lämna landet så fick jag säga att jag är inbjuden till en workshop för mänskliga rättigheter i Istanbul. Detta var en vit lögn, som man brukar säga.

Jag kom fram till Istanbul och där kontaktade jag min pappa. Min pappa är pedagogisk och förstår ungdomars tankar. Mitt mål var att fly till Europa för att skapa en bättre framtid för mig, min familj och för mina barn.  Jag berättade detta för pappa och han sade: ”Lycka till. Ta hand om dig”. Efter att ha fått veta att mina föräldrar stöttade mig, åkte jag till staden Izmir. Det är den närmaste punkten till den grekiska gränsen.

Efter flera försök att ta oss över havet, så lyckades jag komma till Grekland. Jag kom fram till Ön Samos och där var jag kvar i 8 dagar. Sedan vandrade jag igenom flera länder och till sist hamnade jag i Sverige.

Min andra födelse var 5:e oktober 2015. Det var då jag kom fram till Sverige. Jag fick uppehållstillstånd i mars 2017. Mitt liv har startat och mina drömmar växer för varje dag. Just nu studerar jag. Jag är intresserad av journalistik och jag äger en nyhetssajt som är på det arabiska språket i Sverige.

Jag har stora drömmar och måste jobba hårt för att nå dem. Men det är svårt att vara långt ifrån mina föräldrar. Speciellt under den här svåra tiden och under ramadan. Vi var vana vid att vara tillsammans dagligen.  Det är inte lätt att vara långt ifrån familjen.

Det är lätt att ge upp i början. Det är lätt att misslyckas i ett nytt land. Men om man har en dröm, så ska man kämpa för att nå den. Här går dagarna mycket fort. Man kan lätt börja känna sig uttråkad och börjar längta hem och kanske vilja återvända. Jag hoppas att nyanlända försöker komma in i samhället och skapa något för sig själva. I Irak, Syrien, Yemen och Libyen är det krig och det behövs många år för att återbygga länderna. Jag hoppas att vi kan ta vara på den här möjligheten och skapa en framtid för oss och för våra barn. Jag hoppas att vi förmedlare en bra bild av den arabiska tradition i det svenska samhället.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

I had problems because of religious and political reasons. I studied in Iran and wanted to work in the university, they told me that they could not give me a job as a Sunnite Kurd. Only Persians, Shiites got a job. I studied entomology for three years, after that I wanted to do research or something in the field of entomology. With me was a person studying, he studied something completely different, in the last semester he then joined. His father was also an entomologist. He got a job after his studies, although he only studied for a year. I studied for three years and got no job. He was Iranian, Shiite. I was Kurd and Sunnite.

In Iran, nothing worked without connections. My work depended on one person signing it, he asked me everything except what I learned. When he discovered that I was a Sunnite and my grandfather was with the Peschmerga, a Kurdish freedom movement, he accused me of it. I had nothing to do with it, my grandfather just wanted to protect his family. I never got an answer from him. The interview took place shortly before I graduated, I dropped out of university, I wouldn’t get a job anyway. They took away my hope.

I had to leave Iran for political and religious reasons. I was in mortal danger. In 2015, I fled to Turkey. After six days I took the rubber dinghy to Greece. We were seventy people in the boat, it was not longer than 8m and not wider than 3m. There were children in the boat with us, they had to squeeze between the passengers. Three hours we drove on the water. They cried, I could not stand to see it and took two children on my lap. I played with them until we arrived in Greece.

We had to wait more than thirty days at the Greek-Macedonian border because the border was opened only to Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis. At some point we got lucky and crossed the border. In Macedonia we were given a document with which we went to Serbia. We were driving a cattle truck, it was terrible. In Serbia we got another document, we waited for the train.  We drove again with a cattle car to Croatia, it was a very long drive. We’ve been standing all the way. I could bear to see the women and the elderly without being able to help them. I could barely stand it.

The journey from Croatia to Austria was already better. The cops were nicer and the Trains were real trains. No cattle trucks. We arrived in Austria, where we waited three hours. We got waiting numbers and when we were called they asked us where we wanted to go. I wanted to go to Sweden. We got on a bus, policemen stopped us at the German border. They took us into a building. We were stripped, checked and examined. It wasn’t that bad. After two days they gave us the address of a home. We went to the home.

We arrived at the home and handed in a document. At the home they asked us if we wanted to stay in Germany. Me and my friend said we wanted to go to Switzerland and Sweden. They told us if we don’t want to stay, they can’t host us. It was the middle of the night, in winter, it was very cold. We asked him what we could do, he told us it was our problem. We were only allowed to stay if we wanted to stay in Germany.

We went to a stop, we stayed there for half an hour until we were sent away by security guards. We had to go out into the cold again. We stayed outside and waited until the first train arrived. We could neither sit nor sleep, we were tired and could do nothing. It was snowing.

The first train arrived, we drove to Munich Central Station. I called my uncle and told him I was in Germany. I told him that I couldn’t do anything, that it was very cold and if it stays that way, I’d rather kill myself. I was exhausted and reached my limits. My uncle called a friend from Munich to call me and pick me up at the station. He called me, I waited six hours at the station until he picked me up. He came and we went to his house. I stayed there for a few days.  My cousin was also on his way to Germany, after I was in Munich for four days, he called me and told me he had arrived.

He was really lucky, he came to a nice home in Hamburg. I arranged to meet him in Hamburg the next day. I went to Hamburg and we met there. We bought a ticket to Denmark. My uncle ordered it for us on the Internet, we should have printed it out, but we didn’t know that. We were checked on the train to Denmark. I showed the inspectors the barcode, he told me it wasn’t enough. The police came and took us to the station. We’ve been controlled.

My cousin was taken back to the home, I had to go back to Munich. I paid for the trip myself from my last 40 €. I waited seven hours for the train, it was terrible. Once again I had to wait. I said I was going back to Iran, I lacked the strength for more burdens. I was very tired. I’d get in big trouble in Iran, I’d put up with that. I had black fingernails, I was angry because I couldn’t understand why it went like that, I was angry because I lacked the language to speak.

I called my uncle, he told me to get my cousin, he would send money again so we could go to Denmark. After two hours, I saw a dark-haired man at the station. I approached him and it turned out that he was also a Kurd. He listened to my story, he had a boat ticket that would take me all the way to Denmark. Without problems, without control. It was like a dream for me. When I called my uncle again, he told me I could drive. But I couldn’t. My cousin was young and he needed me. I told the Kurd that unfortunately I could not go.

He told me that he was driving to Hamburg and that I was welcome to come with him, so I did. The trip took about three hours when I arrived I called my uncle. He told me he had a friend in Düsseldorf I could go to. I had no more money for a ticket, I had to dodge paying the fare. On the way I was checked and had to get out. After an hour another train came, I got in. This time again I was checked, I got a note and was allowed to remain seated. A friend of my uncle’s picked me up in Düsseldorf. I called my cousin at his house.

He was fine where he was. He had his own room. I told him to come to Düsseldorf if he wanted and that I would not go to Sweden but stay in Germany. I had no more strength to travel. He wanted to stay with me, too. After three days he came to Düsseldorf. One night before we wanted to register in a camp, I woke up to have a drink. I became very dizzy and fell on the ground. I got unconscious, when I woke up I couldn’t feel my arm. I thought it was fractured. After a while I was fine again, but the pain made me unable to sleep. When my cousin and my uncle’s friend saw me like this, they called the ambulance. They checked me at the hospital, they told me I had nothing.

We registered at camp, I took strong painkillers. It got better at some point. We stayed two months in the camp, then we came to Cologne Ostheim to a camp. It was just carnival in Cologne, we had never seen anything like it before. We went to the main station to see the people. After ten minutes we were stopped by police officers. We had to stand against a wall while they checked our papers. We were ashamed and looked only at the floor. I felt like a terrorist. My papers were fine, but my cousin had a problem. I didn’t understand, so I called an Iranian doctor who translated on the phone. He solved the problem. Until today I don’t know exactly what it was After this incident, we never left the camp any more. After ten days we calmed down and understood that the police only wanted to protect our country. After one year I received a letter from the BAMF, I was allowed to register for a German course. A short time later I was also invited to the hearing. At the hearing, they ask me questions. We were fifty people waiting for their hearing. The next day they all got their identity card with the stay for six months. Not me. I was supposed to come back for two weeks. When I did, they told me to be back in a week. This time I finally got the stay.

I went to the German class and soon had my second interview. Again I told my story, the reason for my escape and everything that happened. I got stay for three years. Now I live here and everything is normal. I would like to take the B2 language course, then continue to the C1 language course and then I would like to do an apprenticeship. I don’t have time to study. It’s not just about me, I think about my family, I’m the oldest and I have to take care of them. I’m in charge of my family.

In Iran, my dream was to study medicine, but I couldn’t because of my background and religion. I also lacked the money, because with what I earned, I had to help my father. I don’t dream for myself, my big dream is to help other people and do something good for them. I may not offer much, but if I only help someone who has no legs to walk, it’s a big deal. My wishes, I don’t want anything for myself, I want to help people. It’s my big dream that I do something for other people.

I always did everything for others, I studied for my family, worked for my family. I just want to help people. I wish that there are more people who want to help, I wish that we hold together, because one hand alone cannot clap. Only together we can do it. “We” means all of us. When I told my story, I felt my way back into that time. I could tell a lot more for the people, but it would take more time.  In Iran, a big problem is that we cannot speak, we are not allowed to speak our minds, we have to share our ideas and our thinking with other people. We need this. It is also my wish that all children have the same chances.

Storyteller’s name:  Zinar Rojhilat
Interviewer’s name: Sarah El Desoke
Country of origin: Iran
Sex: m
Age: 23

My name is Abdelnaser and I come from the countryside in Aleppo, Syria.

 I fled from Syria 2013 together with my entire family. We fled because of the unrest, from missiles and harassment.

 It’s not easy to leave your home country. But we had to. There´s a difference to leave a country when you choose to or if you are forced to do so. We were threatened with weapons and could die at any time.  No person can remain under those circumstances. I can’t describe my feelings, but I couldn’t find a solution to remain. 

We encountered many difficulties along the way before we reached the Turkish border. There were mines along the way, but we managed to avoid them. We stayed for a month in Turkey.

My closest family continued from Turkey, but most of my relatives are still there. I did’nt like Turkey, so I chose to go to Libya because there was work for me there. Syrians were not allowed to enter Libya. I first fled to Egypt and then I continued on illegal roads through the desert to Libya.

The flight from Egypt to Libya was worse than traveling from Syria to Turkey. We fled with a car through the desert and anyone can die on the road if the car tips over. I stayed in Libya for about 4 years. In Libya, I was threatened and beaten physically. The political situation became worse in the country. I tried to flee to Algeria or back to Turkey, but did not succeed. The only way to go further was through the Mediterranean. I fled with my heavely pregnant  wife and my son. I took the risk of traveling with my family through the ocean. I had heard that you could drown.

We fled by boat during the night. It would have been easier to travel during the day. Everything seems more scarry at night. I was afraid for my family and most afraid for my son who was 1.5 years old. We were out at sea for about 9 hours. The smugglers who were with us had weapons and some were drunk. They used very ugly words, which I don’t want to mention here. During these 9 hours we were very worried. Should we arrive or not?

After 9 hours we lost hope. We did’nt see any rescue boat. We could have drowned at any time. We lost hope and told each other that this is our last moment and hope that God will forgive us. After 45 minutes the helicopter came above us to see where we were and to report us to the rescue boats. After 1 hour they came and helped us. We felt safe when we got help. There were several boats in the middle of the ocean, not just us. They took us to Lampedusa in Italy. My wife was 9 months pregnant. I could have had a child out in the ocean.

In Italy they took care of us. They took us to a wellness center. Then they moved us to Sicily. I didn’t want to stay with my family in Italy, so we fled to Milan. It was very difficult to leave Italy. Especially as we were expecting a child. I had heard about a relief organization that helped refugees to move on. Sweden welcomed us. When we arrived in Sweden we encountered some difficulties like the language and we lived in a refugee resident outside the city. But life here is very good. Now I have been here for 5 months. I have started to learn new traditions and have new friends. I also met friends from my city Aleppo.

I have lost my future in my home country. I studied human rights for two years in Syria. Beside my studies I also I worked with plaster decorations.

I hope the EU can help refugees as much as possible. And not just refugees who are neighboring countries to Syria, but Syrians living in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and the Gulf countries that repress refugees. The oppression that occurred in Syria is not as great as what I met in Libya.

I have not mentioned other countries, where they don’t live well at all. I don’t want to mention only Syrians as there are other nationalities such as Palestinians and Iraqis. One can’t imagine how much oppression they have to stand.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

My name is Akbar, I’m 34, from Iran. By the end of 2015 I came to Sweden.
I was employed by the police when I was 17 years old. During my working life at the police, I often had contact with people. I discovered that the police did not work for the people. The injustice had spread across the country and the government did not respect human rights.

As a result, my resistance to the dictatorial regime grew. I have fought against it. Under Iranian law, politicians are not allowed to act politically but I think that, as citizens, I have the right to react if something is unfair in society. Therefore, I decided to join in and fight against injustice. Because of this I was arrested by the police. 3 years ago I got fired as a police officer. For a while I was in a military jail.
Then I thought about changing religion from Islam to Christianity. I went to church.

After a while, I decided to flee to Turkey and seek asylum at the UN. I did not seek asylum directly but waited a little. There were a lot of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria to Turkey so I changed and decided that I would continue and seek asylum in any other country in Europe. I was told that Angela Merkel said that Germany opened the door to refugees. That’s when I decided to flee to the EU along with many others who came from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It took a month. I came to Sweden on October 28, 2015.

At first I thought I was going out of Izmir but I failed. All smugglers chose to help those who were from Syria before they helped others. They from Syrian had planned their trips and could pay more than we others. The smugglers therefore chose to arrange their trips first. Therefore, I decided to go to Bodrum. I stayed there for 10 days. I did not have so much money and no paper. As a military, I also had no passport. Without a pass, I could not stay in any hotel. I did not know how much money I needed for the trip. That’s why I saved the money I had and lived outdoors. It was very difficult to live outside, but I pretend to be with other refugees and sleeping on streets than going back to Iran and experiencing prison.

Once we went with a boat. The boat accommodated 12 people but we were about 60 refugees. Near the waterfront to Greece, the Turkish police arrested us. They left us at Bodrum’s dock. Almost all the tourists who stood there filmed us. Other refugees tried to hide their face with their hands but I did not care about it. I did not do anything wrong. I had fought for my opinions and wanted everyone to hear my voice. When we arrived in Bodrum, the smuggler told us that the police gathered all refugees. Those who were from Iran would send the police back there. I really could not go back to Iran. I preferred to die than to go back to Iran. We hid a few days in the woods. The second time we went boat with another smuggler to an island in Greece. Our boat was worse than the first one. We were even more on the boat. One of us drove the boat. The boat’s engine broke and we had no gas. The boat was still standing for 5 hours and water came into the boat. We emptied it with our shoes.

The Turkish police did not help us because we were not in Turkey anymore and we received no response from the Greek police. We drove at 7 o’clock in the morning from Turkey and at five o’clock the day after we were in Greece. The people on that island knew that when there is a boat with refugees, they need help. We got food, towels, clothes, and other things we needed.

Afterwards, we had to register and register to proceed. We stayed there for a few days. There all got permission and they drove us to Athens. From there we went to the border with Macedonia. It was very warm. We went a long time before reaching a station where we could continue by train. All children and families had a place to sit, but we were alone to stand the whole trip either at the entrance or in the toilet. 10-15 people were forced to the toilet during the journey which took 5 hours. There was also no place on the floor. We stood all the way until we arrived in Serbia. There we had to wait a long queue to get permission to move on to Croatia. I had to wait 4 days before I was allowed to go on.

We traveled through Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany before we arrived in Sweden. Now I have travel documents and I can easily travel through all the countries but then it was not easy. When I arrived in Sweden, I got a sponge on my feet. There was a long queue at the health center and it took 3 months before I got the help of a doctor. I still have wounds on my feet.

If I compare the countries I went through, I must say that Sweden and Germany as destination countries responded to refugees in a nicer way than the other countries that were not our goals. We would only pass those other countries and the behavior of the people against us was terribly inhuman.
When we arrived at Rostock we were allowed to stay there for 3-4 days. Then we proceeded to a port near Rostock. I have forgotten the name. We went on to Gothenburg. From there we then went to Malmö. We stayed at Hotel Jägersro.

When I was in Turkey, I was still worried but when I arrived at the Greek island, I started crying because I felt safe. I was both happy and sad. I was glad that I could finally save myself but sad because I could not come back to my country and because I will not be able to meet my daughter who was only 1 year old when I left her.
I ask the responsible authorities to help my child and my wife get here. My wife has had a mental illness in Iran. I do not feel good either.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

My name is Mostafa and I am Palestinian journalist from Syria. My nation is of course Palestine, because it is in my heart, but wherever I go and meet nice people, I feel it’s my nation. To leave and flee from a country and from people you love is difficult. Generally, I live well, I live now with my wife and two children, but my son could not come here, he got stuck in Germany. We feel safe, but you still have trouble from what happened in Syria. Missing my family and friends, it feels like something was finely kidnapped from us.

Before we fled, I lived with my great family in the Yarmouk refugee camp. In a few months, our family is spread in 6 countries, from South America to Europe. Before we left Yarmuk, the whole family gathered at my place. It was my dad and mom, my siblings and their children, we were about 30-35 people at my place. It was during the fasting month of Ramadan. It’s great when the whole family is gathering. I knew it was the last time we met and I did not know when we will meet again.

I do not know if we will ever meet again in the same place, nor do I know how I made the decision to fly from one country to another. The decision took only a few hours. I did not have time to think. We found a good opportunity for one of my children to flee first to Sweden, and live together with grandmother and grandfather in Sweden. It was my responsibility to make a decision, but it was my son who made the decision and said he would leave. He left and we had to wait a whole year to accompany the dream, but the dream was not complete because my older son did not get reunited with us. He had to take the difficult and long road and went through about 10 countries. His journey took about 9 months. He encountered many difficulties, through mountains, forests and the sea. He had to be in prison, beaten and tortured. It happened that we had no contact for 1-2 weeks and did not know where he was. Once we heard nothing from him for 2 months. He got stuck in the Czech Republic. But eventually he arrived at Germany but unfortunately did not live with us in Sweden.

I miss everything from the Yarmouk refugee camp. I miss the refugee settlement because it was a place for Palestinians. You felt at home there. It was a place that affected and helped all Palestinians who lived there. But unfortunately it’s over.

I do not know if it can come back. But you have to stand on your legs and live on, I hope to be once again reunited with my family.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

Svenska: Jag heter Maryam och kommer från Somalia. Jag saknar vår bondgård i Somalia. Vi odlade frukt, grönsaker och behövde inte handla något. Allt fanns där. Jag saknar det mycket.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with

I have drawn aircraft that attack the houses in Daraa. Everything was destroyed and many people were murdered, even the animals were murdered.

Svenska: Jag heter Mahmoud och är 45 år gammal. Jag kommer från staden Daraa i Syrien. Jag kom till Sverige för två år sedan.

Jag ha ritat flygplan som attackerar husen i Daraa. Allt förstördes och många människor mördades, till och med djuren mördades.

A Million Stories Sweden: Nizar Keblawi, Nina Olsson, Sara Sarabi, Malin Gillberg, Daniel Björklund, Mats Nordström.

A Million Stories Sweden volunteers: Fariborz Ghadir, Mohamad Mohsin, Yazan Saad, Tarek Aloudallah, Dalia Saleem, Yara Ali, Ahmad Younes, Chaimae Hamri.

In association with