I have been in Denmark since august 2015. Before the war I had a very good life. My husband and I had a nice house, my husband had a good job, and a car. For eight years I worked as a school teacher. We had good neighbours, a good family and were very happy. In the weekends we would take trips.
When the war started I was very afraid of what was going to happen. My husband went to work every day, and I was alone in our home. Our house was very close to a military area, so I was afraid. Every evening when I watched the news I saw how the war escalated in the suburbs surrounding Damascus, and that scared me. Members of my family fled to Turkey, so we thought we also had to flee. At first we fled to Damascus to live with my husband’s family, but it was very hard because we lived 12 people under one roof. For that reason we decided to flee to Egypt, where we worked in a shop for 12 hours a day. Still, we could not make enough money to pay the rent. I started to work as a teacher for Syrian children in Egypt, to help them with language problems and help them integrate into school.

When my husband fled to Europe I lived in Egypt with my sister. I continued my job as a teacher, but it was very hard for me to be separated from my husband for so long. Especially as I was also in a new country. I was in Egypt without my husband for a year and two months. Finally I got family reunification and flew to Denmark to my husband. I moved in with my husband in a sharing house. We were there for about three months, and then we moved to Birkerød, where we started at language school. I finished language school after a year and a half. After that I went to adult education and got my 9th grade and now I’m going for my 10th grade diploma. At the same time I work as a volunteer with Syrian children in the cultural center, and have done that for two years. I have had two internships too during that time.

I would like to tell the Danish people that all people deserve a chance. We are only here because of war in our homeland, not to receive money from the government. Some day I hope to become a Danish teacher, but we wish that the war in Syria will end so that we can return to our homeland.