I live here in Malmö with my family. We came here to Sweden, to Malmö in 2014, but not directly from Syria. We came from United Arab Emirates. I lived there for 10 years before coming here to Sweden.This step was like a critical step in life, because we couldn’t get back to Syria, you know, because of the war, and the situation there is like… deeply bad, so the decision was to move to the best country that offers good conditions to people like us, in our condition. We thought of many countries, like Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, but at that time, Sweden was a better choice for us – a better option for the social environment that it has, and here I mean the racism, which here is, I think, the lowest in all of the European countries. That was one the one hand, and on the other hand, well the conditions of the individual, for example someone who lives in Sweden – What benefits and advantages and rights this individual has.

When we came here at first, we experiences heaps of differences between the cultures. I mean my culture or the eastern culture, and here the Western culture. We didn’t find actually that it was difficult for us to settle here and to adapt to the environment and to the culture, because we already lived in a country that included 80 different nationalities, in Dubai for example, so we are so open to different cultures.

But the ongoing problem that we are facing – and it is still on – it was finding a job. Like a proper job with the experience and the qualifications that we have, fx I have a huge experience in education, translation, and teaching. But here there are some like rutine and obsticales to find a job. For many reasons the first one is the language. The Swedish language it was like an obstacle to find a job first. And then we had to do many things in order to find a job. First of all, we had to finish the secondary level of language school, and then we had to complete our bachelor degree with subjects here in the country, which is not available in ours. And before that it was difficult, not impossible, but semi-impossible to find a job. So we are working on that. We are still studying the Swedish language, and we are in the final stage now. Afterwards we have to make this “kompletering” (in Swedish). Which means to complete our grades in our bachelor in order to be eligible to be teachers here in Sweden, and I think it is just a waste of time! Because we were here for four years, or actually more than four years now, and we could avoid wasting this much time by just one simple rule, or if they decided here to help people like us. For example, they could find us a job in the schools, and with this job we could acquire the language and we could participate in our experience, and be more useful to the society. This is actually what is in my priority and what is most important an order to be 100% settled in this country.

We are here now trying our best to finish this mission – getting the licences to be teachers here and work as teachers. Otherwise we could do new jobs, new carriers, which could be 100 % different from our education background, which is not easy for people in our age to start something new in my life. So this is my issue. Otherwise here is a very great country. I love it, and I have become Swedish citizen now, a few months ago. So yeah, this is my life now, and honestly I’m not thinking to get back to Syria, even if the war ended. Here it is much much better for the future of our children, not only for me. So I have to think ahead, not only about the current situation.

I want to share my experience with raising my two kids in Sweden instead of in Syria.

I’m from Lattakia in Syria, like my husband. Every woman dreams of having children, and some people get kids right after marriage, while some people wait a little. After we married, we decided to wait a little to have kids, because we wanted to get to know each other better first.
And when we finally decided that we were ready to start a family, then it was not in God’s plan that I should become pregnant. I started to see some doctors and make tests, but the doctors said everything looked fine, but still I could not get pregnant.
When we arrived in Sweden, I was thinking about going to see a doctor again. They told me that I had to wait until I had stayed in Sweden at least one year until I could see a specialist for this matter and talk about treatments. It had to be a whole year, they said, because the body needs to adjust to the new weather and milieu. So I waited a year. And here is the story that I always love to tell: After exactly one year I went to the doctor, and she said she would send me to the hospital to have a fertility treatment.
We decided to make this treatment, and they wrote some documents for this. When I was about to go, the doctor just said, “wait, let me just take a small test, just because I need to write in the papers that a made a test before we send you to the treatment.” And when she made the test she couldn’t believe what she saw. The doctor started saying: “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, mashaallah, mashaallah”. I got afraid that there was something wrong – it was quite funny actually. Then she said: You are pregnant. It was so funny and great that we didn’t make the treatment yet, but they just figured out that I was pregnant when preparing the documents for the treatment. My husband called me after this.  My appointment in the hospital had taken more time than he expected, and I was crying. He first got afraid that something was wrong, but I told him while crying: I’m pregnant.
Now my boy is 2 years old. We called him Adam Fawaz, and he just got a younger brother, Daniel.
Before, I always expected that when I get my first child, then I will be close to my family and they will be there to help me out, and play with him and help raise him. It is our tradition that family is important and that kids will be close with their grandparents.
Now instead, I got my children after coming to Sweden, far away from my family, but it is also good, because the kids will have a healthy childhood/raise, and they will be safe because there is no war. There is no reason to worry for the children’s safety here. I’m thankful that I got my children after arriving here. Some people had to flee together with their children across the sea, and some died in the sea because they wanted to come here and raise their kids here, but I was already here when I got my children. I feel like it is a gift from God that it happened like that, and I’m very thankful. Sweden is a lovely country, and I love to see my kids grow up here.

Svenska: Jag heter Raja och kommer från Palestina men född i Syrien. Jag har bott 1 år i Sverige. Tillsammans mot rasism.

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 Ayad, och kommer från Syrien. Jag kom till Sverige 2015. Jag studerar just nu svenska. Arbetsförmedlingen hjälper inte till att hitta jobb. Vi vill ha jobb som inte behöver svenska. Sverige säljer vapen till stridande partier i Syrien. Vi dör med vapnen. Mänskliga rättigheter är den största lögn.

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 Syeda och kommer från Pakistan, jag kom till Sverige för 8 månader sedan. Snälla lös lägenhetskrisen.

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 Sulten och kommer från Turkiet. Jag kom till Sverige för 17 månader sedan. I Turkiet fängslas många kvinnor och män. De flyr genom en flod som heter Meria. Människorna flyr tillsammans med deras barn. Men några människor drunknar med sina barn.

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 Mashal och kommer från Afghanistan. Jag kom till Sverige för 9 månader sedan. Varje människa behöver fred. Jag vill verkligen se fred i mitt hemland.

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 Zahra och kommer från Libanon. Jag kom till Sverige för 4 månader sedan.

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 Serap, jag kom till Sverige för 22 månader sedan. Jag och mina kompisar har mycket problem i Turkiet. Jag ritade barn i Turkiet som gråter. Idag finns det 700 barn fängslade i Turkiet.

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 Maram, jag kommer från Syrien och kom till Sverige för 2 år och 6 månader sedan. Sedan kriget i Syrien har vi lidit här i Sverige. Det är svårt att få ett jobb i sin utbildning. Det är också svårt att få en lägenhet.

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