Click side arrows for more photos.
In Syria, the Fear is Gone
Mohannad Rachid, 19, and a group of other Syrian-Americans felt helpless back in the United States as they watched Syria become engulfed in conflict and despair.
Born in New Jersey but having spent much of his childhood in Abu Dhabi, Mohannad spoke fondly of the many trips he took to Syria and the summers he enjoyed in Damascus. With much of his immediate family living in the Syrian capital, he stays in touch with them frequently to get updates on the latest news on the ground.
“My mom has 10 siblings and they all live in Syria. My father has three brothers in Syria and I have over 50 first cousins, “ he said. “My grandmother lives in Damascus.”
This past January, Mohannad ventured to Syria by way of Turkey to do something about the helplessness he felt back in the United States.
With little more than a hole in the fence that you just walk through, he described the experience of crossing the border and the business-like venture it has become. “It’s like a business now, the people were on both sides of the border, to get in illegally,” he said. “You give them 20 dollars but if you were foreign you would have to pay extra.”
Mohannad and his friends planned the trip out in advance and had connections with people in the liberated areas of Syria. Once on the other side of the border, his ride was waiting for him and he traveled about 15 minutes from downtown Aleppo.
The devastation and destruction that awaited him was hard to describe. “It was horrible, it was heartbreaking,” he said. “This is my home country, to see all the destruction and that people were just trying to live their own lives but couldn’t.”
Mohannad had hardly been in Syria before he experienced his first taste of war. “We were just sitting down with some FSA (Free Syrian Army) guys, and all of a sudden a warplane comes out of nowhere and 300 meters from us it dropped a TNT barrel,” he said. “All of a sudden the room just shakes and there was a glass window and it shattered.”
Asked whether or not he was afraid after that, Mohannad gave an unexpected answer. “Before the warplane came, we were sitting in a room and I was talking with my friends, we felt like we were at grandmas house, it’s so safe. It is not that bad. Five minutes later the warplane came.”
The experience near Aleppo rattled them. They returned to Turkey where some decided not to return to Syria due to the risk of getting injured or worse yet, being killed. Despite this, Mohannad and half of the original group returned to Syria shortly after to complete their mission.
Organized by the Syrian American Council but funded individually, Mohannad and his friends traveled to Syria to deliver medical equipment and to assist refugees in the country. They raised $20,000 in cash and provided aid and equipment to refugees living in the camps.
They visited the Atmeh camp inside Syria where they found the conditions to be extremely dire and the living conditions unbearable.
Mohannad said that there were around 15,000 registered refugees living in the camp he visited but that it did not have enough bathrooms to accommodate that number. “For 15,000 people there were around 40 bathrooms. We donated 2,000 in cash and we built another 20 bathrooms,” he said.
“You hear all these organizations saying that they are donating, giving millions of dollars to these refugee camps but when you go there you don’t see that at all. It’s horrible.”
For those living inside the camps, the accommodations were not only unbearable but also dangerous. Many of the tents were plastic so that if they caught on fire, the whole thing would burn.
Mohannad recalled one story where tragedy struck an entire family. “There was a family of five actually that died because their tent was set on fire,” he said. “The most ironic part was that they survived a bomb. It was a mom and four children. They survived a bomb that fell on the kitchen of their house in Hama.” “They were trying to escape death but death still caught them,” he said.
Many of the refugees in the camps that he visited disliked President Bashar al-Assad and were pro-revolution and pro-FSA.
Even the kids in the camp were participating in the revolutionary enthusiasm. You could see it in their spirit and blood, Mohanand said. “Every time they would start a little protest or chant, it was something that they loved. They wanted freedom and democracy.”
Mohannad speaks with his family often in Damascus. His family lives close to each other and that they often joke when a bomb goes off. For them, it’s normal now. They remain confident that democracy will come and a few of them are in the FSA.
His family members have had enough and want to return to their normal lives. His cousins can’t attend school or university right now and to remain safe, they stay at home.
“They are not afraid. But it’s about being smart nowadays,” he said.
The regime’s brutality hit home for Mohannad who said his uncle was detained for two months and tortured for no apparent reason.
His uncle had been sleeping at a friend’s house when the regime came to search the house for weapons. They found nothing and decided, according to Mohannad, to take his uncle into custody.
“My uncle came out losing 30 pounds and he had torture marks on his back,” he said.
The regime arrested and tortured people just to put fear in people but Mohannad said the Syrian people were not afraid anymore. He said that he Assad family instilled fear in people for decades but that the barrier was now gone.
“Every time I would go to Syria, my mom would tell me, make sure you don’t speak anything about the president because they will come after you.” He said that everyone knew that if you said anything about Bashar or his father or about the regime for that matter, they would take you. But when the revolution started the fear was gone
“People would use anonymous names when the revolution started but now people use their normal names because no one is afraid anymore,” he said. “People want freedom to come, they are trying to show Assad that they are not afraid anymore.”
Back in Chicago studying pre-med and finance, Mohannad is focused on his studies but feels helpless to do much being so far from the conflict. “I see my country burning, I see my people dying and there is barely anything I can do. It really hurts,” he said.
He plans to return to Syria in the coming months to assist in the humanitarian operation and to create a documentary. For him it’s a duty to go because this is his family and his people. “Me staying here, there is no reason for me to stay here. I have to do it. I have no excuses.” Asked if he was afraid to go back, he said, “we are way past that now.”
Garret Pustay, VOIX Politics Editor
Based in Chicago and the Middle East
Original pictures from Mohannad Rachid
