Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Building new lives in peace
Ian Bunting
“I remember being caught by tear gas used by the security forces.
“It burned your eyes and throat and we were scared that it was chemical weapons.”
Words that no teenager should have to utter but the harsh reality of Yassine Alharaisi’s terrifying childhood in Syria.
The St Andrew’s High pupil, 18, fled his home in the war-torn country’s capital of Damascus with his mum Nazira Hijazi and younger brother Badr, 11, when he was only 12 years old, just weeks after being near-fatally poisoned.
The stricken family found their way to Scotland and have been living safely and happily in Coatbridge for the last 18 months.
Yassine, Nazira and three other refugees – husband and wife Chadi and Mariam Amiri and Mona Al Dafan, who were among those provided with homes through North Lanarkshire’s Syr ian refugee resettlement programme, took to the stage at Airdrie town hall last Thursday to share their memories of life in Syria – and thanked the people of Monklands for “making them feel welcome”.
The For Humanity We Speak event took its audience on a powerful, emotional ride as harrowing stories and images mixed with messages of hope to leave them hanging on every weighty word.
Tears were shed and voices broke down as the heartbreak of their old lives threatened to consume each speaker.
But they bravely continued to give context to a conflict many will only have seen on fleeting news bulletins since it began four-and-a-half years ago.
Yassine apart, the speakers delivered their speeches in their own language, with Chaimae Baqqari of Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire acting as an interpreter.
Mariam spoke of Syria being “a river of blood filled from women, the elderly and children” and highlighted that children “get killed every day from bombings and a lack of nutrition and medical care”.
The sound of helicopter blades still were both poisoned by chemicals, “escaping death miraculously”.
Their distressing story had a happy ending when, following a year living in Lebanon, the family moved to Coatbridge.
A typical school day at St Andrew’s High is a far cry from Yassine’s early teenage years: “I could not afford school because I had to work to pay for rent and food.
“Between the ages of 12 and 16 I had many different jobs. When I first started work I got paid very little. I usually worked 12 hours a day, sometimes longer.”
Yassine also described some of the “very frightening” experiences he endured during his time in Syria: “I remember one night being in a shelter with many other people while bombs