My name is Jamail Ahmed Obaid and I am just one of the Syrians who left behind his homeland and his family because of the severe war. I grew up in a beautiful Syria, ate its bread of an unforgettable scent. Now all of it is just a mere memory.

I am longing to return to Syria someday, to kiss the land of my home, hug the streets I miss so much. I would watch children play and wait for the first morning bus.

 I graduated from both elementary and high school in Alep and later on enrolled in a university, where I was among the top of class. I have a Law Degree because I always wanted to be a lawyer. This made me very happy and I grew to love law even more during the studies. It was at the university that I met a wonderful fellow student who I met and she started to attend our family celebrations. We fell in love, got engaged and married. And then the war broke out.

It spread furiously in all the cities, different conflicts were ongoing. The sense of security vanished over night. Explosions were everywhere. Missiles were falling from all sides, one couldn’t differentiate who was throwing them. People started to leave the country. Some were forced, the others ran out of fear, seeking salvation for themselves. We were among them.

When our house in Alep was destroyed, the family broke apart. We didn’t have anywhere to return to, so we decided that the smartest thing was to leave the country. We did that with great sorrow in our hearts. We arrived in Turkey and spent some time in Istanbul, but we decided to move on. We took the rubber boat to Greece. The voyage was dangerous and difficult. It was called the Route of Death, because a large number of people, elderly and children died along the way. We were very scared, did not know if we would make it to the shore. Thank God, we made it safely to Greece.

We spent nearly a whole year at one Greek island and then decided to move on again. We found a smuggler who transported us to Macedonia. It was a very difficult road, from Greece, across Macedonia, all the way to Serbia. We finally arrived in Belgrade. We met an organization in Belgrade which offered us all the help they could. They took us to the police station to register. We were then referred to the Reception center in Principovac. It was a good center where we spent several months.

My wife had medical problems, she could not get pregnant, and the staff in the center helped her with that as well, took her to the doctor’s and she was treated there with the best care. Eventually, she got pregnant and so we moved to the Reception center in Subotica. Our daughter Julia was born there, the most beautiful and wonderful baby girl. My wife and our daughter received all the help they needed.

That is when we decided to remain in Serbia. For us and for the future of our beautiful baby girl.

Since the outbreak of war till this day, the most wonderful event is that my wife was cured and that our baby girl came to this world. I will always be grateful to the wonderful Serbian people and I hope that we will receive asylum in Serbia and continue our lives here.

Greetings from the bottom of our hearts to the people in this country from my wife, my daughter and me.

We love you,

Jamil Ahmed Obaid, Jasmin Abdullmenem, Julia Jamil Obaid