Sidra

From the interview:

'I was very young when the war started, five years old. We lived with my grandfather in Aleppo. I have two older and two younger sisters. My baby brother was hit by a bullet in Syria and died. Because of the danger, we moved to another city near the Turkish border after a few months.'

But it was unsafe there too, so we went to Turkey. At first we didn't have a home there, but my father managed to find work with a curtain maker. Now, almost all our family members live there. It was strange to suddenly hear Turkish being spoken. My father was able to pick it up more quickly, thanks to his work. Eventually, I was allowed to go to school there too. Of the three years we lived there, I spent a year and a half at school.

But Turkey wasn't safe for us either. That's why we went to Greece. After waiting a few months, we were allowed to fly to The Netherlands. We lived in the asylum seekers' centre near the city of Heerenveen in the northern province of Friesland — our family of seven and my aunt. Later, we got our own house in the village Sint Nicolaasga.

There I was allowed to go to school again. They spoke Dutch at school, but the neighbours spoke Frisian, the local language. I lived there for four years and had to start in group 1 with the four-year-olds, even though I was nine myself. That was a bit strange. Fortunately, it was a very small school, and we had groups 1 to 4 together in one class.

I have fond memories of it. I had friends, it was fun, everyone was nice. In 2020 we moved to a city in the south because my father got a job there as a truck driver. At first we lived in a flat, later we moved to a bigger house. We now have a little baby brother again. I speak Dutch with my sisters and Syrian with my parents. That's Arabic with a Syrian dialect.'

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