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This is how 14-year-old Sara* described the emotions she experienced while living through bombings, fire fights, and other atrocities of war in her homeland Syria.
Sara’s story isn’t one in a million. It’s one of more than 14 million. A generation of Syrians are growing up during the worst refugee crisis in the world.
Sara fled with her mother, siblings, aunts, and grandparents to Lebanon after her father was kidnapped and murdered. Once a happy and bright child, she is overwhelmed by feelings no child should know.
“At first they didn’t tell me; they told my mother. But I heard. I was devastated. ... I wanted to kill myself,” Sara said. “I miss his sweet words and the way he used to play with us. He used to say, ‘Come here, my daughter, my love.’ I just want my father to come back.”
Sara fled Syria with the clothes she was wearing and a few items that remind her of the life she once had. “I packed my watch and my photo album,” Sara said. “I love them because the photo album has pictures of me and my father and siblings, and the watch was a present from my father.”
Today, Sara lives in a tent with up to four other families. Thinking of Syria brings more heartache. “There, we had a home,” she said. “No, I don’t like it here. It’s not a life here.”
But life in Lebanon offers something Syria cannot—“There’s no bombing, there’s no rockets. … It’s a bit better.”
Since the crisis in Syria began in 2011, World Vision has assisted more than 2 million refugees, internally displaced people, and vulnerable host community members in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Serbia, and Turkey. But there’s many more people we can reach with your help.
*name changed to protect identity
