Doaa’s Hope for Syria
This is an emotional, hopeful moment for all Syrians. For me too.
Over they years, during my work at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, I met so many remarkable refugees who fled the brutal Assad dictatorship to save themselves. They suffered in exile, safe, but unsettled, longing for for home. Many risked their lives to reach Europe.
I wrote a book about one courageous young woman, Doaa al Zamel, called A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea.
Doaa was a Syrian refugee, driven from her home by the brutal war.
She and her fiancé, Bassem, couldn’t see a future where they were living in limbo.
So, they put their lives in the hands of smugglers. And traveled across the sea to Europe.
Together with 500 others, they crammed onto an old fishing boat.
After four days at sea, it sank. Many were killed instantly, while others hung onto wreckage to stay alive.
After two days, Bassem lost his fight with the sea, leaving Doaa, who couldn’t swim, draped on a child’s floating ring, looking after two babies.
She sang and prayed with them, as they drifted another two days at sea.
Until at last they were rescued from their ordeal.
Of 500 people, only Doaa and a handful of others survived, including a baby girl she saved.
Doaa’s extraordinary survival story captured the world’s imagination. It is a tale of remarkable courage, of resilience, of not giving up hope.
Today, that powerful hope has finally turned into a reality for Doaa.
She wrote me this to me today from her exile in Sweden: “this is a moment like a dream… an indescribable feeling. I hope that peace will prevail in Syria and that it will return safe. All Syrians were waiting for this moment.”
I felt so happy for Doaa and for her family and all the Syrians who now have hope for the future. We at the United Nations are committed to helping build a country of reconciliation, justice, freedom, inclusivity and prosperity for everyone. And when and if the conditions arise, to help the millions of refugees wishing to return home, to do so in safety and in dignity.
