“It’s all still like a dream”: Syrian refugee builds new life in Argentina
Eyad Jaabary (Eddy) knew very little about Argentina before landing at Buenos Aires airport as a refugee in 2017. Since then, and with the support of a sponsor family, he has built a new life for himself and now works with projects helping other refugees and encouraging more people to become sponsors. This is his story.
Leaving Syria was not an easy decision. I decided to leave for many reasons, the main one being that I didn’t want to do military service, which is mandatory when you turn 18 or finish university. I didn’t want to risk forgetting everything I had learned just to go and fight in a war I didn’t believe in. I could serve my country in other ways: teaching children or being part of the education system, but that wasn’t an option. I had no choice but to leave.
When I went to the interview at the embassy in Damascus, they asked me what I knew about Argentina. I summed it up as “Messi, mate and tango”. I had practically no idea what life was like in Argentina.
When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I was kind of scared, because that was my first plane journey, and from the other side of the Atlantic. The person who met me with the IOM (International Organization for Migration) sign told me that people were very friendly in this country. That day is like New Year for me. Every time that date comes around, I reset.
It’s all still a wonderful experience, like a dream. It’s very hard to think that one day you’ll leave your country and find everything you’re looking for in another country so far away.
When you come from a war zone, you need peace. Patricio and Susana, my sponsors, helped me so much. Patricio was more practical, gave me information, showed me how to do things, how to make my own way, so I could gain my independence. I feel like he was a bit of a father figure. Susi was more spiritual support, she really looked after me, showed me some good films, she really helped me to recover. She healed my wounds in some way.
In the first few months, I would go out to explore, I didn’t have a sim card, didn’t have a map, I got lost, but I enjoyed that. We would go for walks through different neighbourhoods, museums, parks, subways, I felt like a child exploring the world.
After four or five months of studying Spanish, I could already read and understand something. That was very important. I could make my own way. I worked in a school for five years. Now I’m working as a translator and setting up a clothing brand with my partner, which is something I always wanted to do.
Solidarity and family
Now, I feel like I’m just another Argentinian, I have lots of friends here, I already have citizenship. I feel like now I have roots here in Argentina, it would take a lot for me to think about moving to a third place.
Sponsorship is a very positive thing – and necessary. For me, it meant the chance to start over with my life, with constant support and guidance from a family who took me into their home. And I was very lucky with the family who took me in. Without them, it would all have been much more difficult. Susana and Patricio are still my family, we’re always in touch.
The Argentinian people are very supportive. When I rented an apartment, I needed a lot of stuff and the parents of the pupils at the school where I worked collected so many things for me that I actually ended up with too much.
Fighting for rights is a very important value for me, and it’s something that everyone is very aware of here in Argentina. I come from a society where everything has to be a certain way, but here people assert their rights and that gives me a real sense of belonging, I feel like I can be myself without any restrictions.
I always thought that I was a very shy person, but the sponsorship brought out the activist in me. In the times we’re living in, it’s really important to show compassion towards others.
I remember the first time I went to a Pride march here, it was a crazy feeling, because everyone goes out at the same time, including heterosexual people and families with their children. Here, the Pride march is a demonstration for asserting your rights and also an event that brings everyone together.
10 million refugees
Syria brings up a lot of different feelings for me, all at once. I feel really bad about what we had to live through in Syria. We went from being a very safe country, to being a country with such a large diaspora. I feel like the country has been emptied. There are around 10 million refugees like me outside of Syria.
When I think about Syria, I feel so much pain and hope, and a lot of nostalgia for very simple things. I miss the calm of walking along the beach in the Mediterranean, family gatherings, everyone knowing who I am. Luckily, thanks to technology, I’m in touch with my brother and my cousins, I share bits of my life here with them every day. I’m in touch with my brother all the time, I really tried to get him to come to Argentina, but it wasn’t possible. My idea is to go and visit him, and that whenever he can, he will come to Argentina.
I do feel hopeful, now that there is a change, that the dictatorship has fallen, that all those of us who are abroad will be able to contribute with those experiences.
Eddy and Carolina, one of his sponsors at her home in Argentina ©Anita Pouchard Serra/Amnesty International.
“They changed my life”
If anyone is thinking about being a sponsor, I would commend them for being brave enough to take on a new experience, because it means taking someone into your family, and understanding a stranger’s suffering. I would commend them for their humanity, and I would tell them that they won’t regret it, despite the cultural differences they will encounter.
When they took me into their home, Patricio and Susana changed my life, they gave me a great opportunity. It’s really important that people understand what it means, that it can change someone’s life. For a family maybe it’s just giving up a room in their house, or sharing dinner with someone, but for the other person it’s being REBORN, it’s being able to do things they weren’t able to do in their own country.
Knowing that one million people have been sponsored around the world since 2017 confirms, again, that deep down we are all one. That despite the politics and rhetoric, and obstacles, we can still feel the other person. I think one million is a huge number, in terms of willingness. You’re talking about a million lives that have been saved, and there will be more, far more than a million!