Wafaa Al Ashram, Syria, arrived in New Zealand 2016

FOR Wafaa Al Ashram, life really began when she arrived in New Zealand.

The 52yearold has a disability that means she is unable to walk.

For most of her life in her native Syria, she had a wheelchair that had to be manually pushed.

She was reliant on family to go anywhere, and could go for a week at a time without going outside.

Now, able to zoom around South Dunedin in her electric wheelchair, she is living an independent life.

‘‘It’s a new life for me,’’ she says.

‘‘I am really happy, excited for me.’’

She decided to leave her home country when tragedy struck her family. Her son, Mustafa Al Hamwi (20), was killed in 2014 when he refused to fight in the civil war.

She also lost her house, and could no longer enter the area where she had once lived.

She took her two other sons, Ahmad (now 18) and Mohammad (now 21) and fled to Lebanon in 2015.

She later learnt she would be accepted in New Zealand as a refugee. She knew nothing about Aotearoa other than the country’s name.

The first few weeks were really hard, but she had a lot of support.

‘‘I’m so thankful for all the people around me.’’

She still has family in Syria, and as well as the struggles of the war, they have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Her sister has Covid19 and she recently lost another young relative to the virus.

While being so far away from family has been tough, she is happy to have made New Zealand her home.

She is hoping to make that permanent, having applied for citizenship.

‘‘I like it here.’’