Mahmoud:

“Life in Syria was amazing before the war started. I was getting a good salary as a showroom manager for a shoe company, and even though the governance was bad, everything else was good. My wife Nour was studying English. I remember thinking to myself when I first met her ‘I love this girl’. We got married and when our little boy was born, it felt like a miracle.

But the big war had started and I lost my job and my home. Everybody was killing everybody without reason. The government wanted to send me to the military, but I could not accept that because I would have had to kill my brothers. We decided to move away so our son can have a better future.

We went from Syria to Turkey and stayed in different cities. From Turkey to Greece, we had to take a rubber boat with 42 people on board and no captain. The man who gave it to us just told us to steer towards a light. The sea was very dangerous. When I looked into the water, all I saw was darkness and I heard voices telling me they would take away my family. In a situation like this, you have to believe in God and trust him.”

Nour:

“In Austria we’ve made amazing friends. We want to thank them and all the helpers so much. We are so glad to have met them, because the situation in the refugee camp is very bad. Hundreds of people have to sleep outside and many of them are sick and get rashes but they don’t receive any treatment. Inside, there are lots of fights between people from different countries. Sometimes, babies go without food for 20 hours. Some people get a transfer after two days, some after months. There is no system at all. The company running the camp doesn’t care about anyone. There are many rules, but no rules for respect.

Our child needs proper food. We have to stand in line for two and a half hours to wait for a meal here. One day we bought spaghetti at a store and wanted to bring the food inside the camp. But the guard took it away and said: ‘My manager doesn’t allow that.’ I would like to take the manager to Syria and show him what it’s like there.”