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Aisha

28/9/2016

Aisha is 29 and married with no children. She left Idlib, Syria three years ago. At first, they were taken to Telabyad RC. “We stayed there for just over a week, but life there was really bad. The services at the camp were bad. There were a lot of stray dogs and a lot of rats in the camp. At night we used to hear the rats roaming inside the tent. And in the mornings we would find the droppings. It was just too much to cope.”

“When we arrived we brought all our savings with us, so we were eventually able to rent a room in a house, which we share with four other families. It’s a very crowded environment and very volatile situation. There’s always an argument among the families at least once or twice a week. These arguments often get almost out of control. But we’re living on top of each other and the facilities in the apartment are very basic. We all need to share one toilet and a small kitchen. There may not be any rats or stray dogs around me that create an unhygienic environment and stress me out but now we suffer another type of stress living in this crowded house.”

“I got pregnant some time ago but unfortunately I lost the baby. That was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. To lose my baby was even worse than the war. I experienced problems in the first trimester. I felt something was wrong when I had a strange feeling inside me. I knew that something wasn’t quite right. At the time, my husband wasn’t at home. He was trying to find some work. And I had to go to the hospital alone. I waited a long time before I was able to see a midwife. During the consultation, she told me that there was a serious complication with my baby. It was an ectopic pregnancy and the midwife told me that I need to have an emergency operation otherwise I could have lost my life. Within minutes I was taken to theatre and my stomach was cut open without anaesthetic.”

“The pain was terrible. I thought I was dying. And within an hour of the operation I was discharged from the hospital. I was still bleeding, I didn’t even have enough money on me to get home and I took me very long time to walk home.”

“Once I got home and told my husband that I lost the baby and it would be more difficult for me to get pregnant again after the operation. He got very upset about the way I was treated in the hospital, that I was alone and that he wasn’t able to be with me when I lost the baby. Like me, he is very sad that our baby is gone. And I’m so afraid that it might happen again that I cannot get close to my husband. We would like to have a baby but I’m just so scared because of my experience in the hospital.”

“The women’s centre here has been very good to me and helped me through a difficult time. But we’re not just socialising, I’m attending classes to improve my literacy skills, and I’m also taking cooking classes and learning how to use a sewing machine. Although the centre is really good the resources are limited.”

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