Five years ago I was a car mechanic, specialized in Range Rovers. I owned two garages  in the Baba Amr neighborhood in the city of Homs. Each garage had seven employees and an adjoining shop with car parts. The total worth of the inventory was $140,000. Along with this I also had two cars which delivered chickens for slaughter.

In 2011 when the protests in Syria began I was supporter, although I did not actively participate. But it's important for people to know that in Syria we never had the freedom to do and say what we wanted. Even before the war any protest would be punished by threats or torture by the regime. For example when my son deserted from the army and went into hiding I could no longer leave my neighbourhood of Baba Amr. Because if someone is a deserter then the entire family is threatened, up to and including being killed.

But the real drama began with a demonstration against the mayor of Homs in February 2012. Residents believed that he should resign because of corruption and other scandals. So it was not about Al-Assad. But because there was nothing being done with their demands the crowd grew larger with each passing day and the mood became grimmer. After 13 days a sixteen-year-old girl suddenly climbed onto the stage and screamed into the microphone: ‘Out with Al-Assad!’ The entire square held its breath. Everyone knew that after this public statement Al-Assad would give the order to end the demonstration. But we thought too, hey, it’s the 21st century; he will come with water cannons. 

We were terribly wrong. They began firing with live ammunition and hundreds of people were killed during those days. Then the garbage trucks came to clear away the corpses and I literally saw soldiers dancing on the bodies. It was horrific.

We gave our Facebook-friends the opportunity to be part of our conversations by posting questions. Abou Badwi answers the question of Niels: How can we be of any help at the moment and five years from now? (26 sec)

The battle for Baba Amr was and is one of the greatest battles of the Syrian war. 25,000 people fled. Assad and his brother Maher had apparently made the decision that our neighbourhood had to be completely destroyed as a lesson for the Syrian revolution. The shelling never stopped. 

There were also chemical weapons tried out on our neighbourhood. A bomb fell with chlorine gas. I could barely move, lost all of my hair and my weight dropped from 114 kilos to 74 kilos in a short period of time. I had a great deal of pain in my lower legs and head. We stayed for another 13 days. It was snowing, and it was so cold. Food was becoming scarce. 

We decided to leave. The many wounded we had with us, myself included, only allowed us to be able to travel a mere kilometre per day. We tried to negotiate with the sister of Bashar for an escort. But even that was refused. We were no longer safe anywhere and no longer felt like Syrians anymore. After a very difficult journey we ended up here in Lebanon.

Often I think, what must I explain to the children here in the camp who have lost their parents from all of this violence?  Perhaps that, when you look at history, nations eventually always win from their aggressors. Look for example at the city of Berlin which had been completely destroyed. And you can see how strong the city now is. Even though all of my garages, my house and my neighbourhood have been flattened and I have been left penniless, I still remain standing firmly behind the revolution. 

I am a Syrian.

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