M.I., Assyrian, 54, has no stable work. He’s been living in Ashrafieh, Lebanon, since 2015 with his wife and son, aged 22, who is also unemployed.
“I was sleeping in my bed when the explosion happened and thought it was all a dream. The lights started blinking fast, the house was shaking, and then out of nowhere the door flew to the other side of the room. Glass was raining from everywhere, so I had to take shelter under a wooden plank. I couldn’t even open the main door because I was so scared; I had to take a deep breath to do this basic task. No one was there from my family. When I called to check on them, they were crying, but thankfully no one was injured.”
“We came to our second country Lebanon thinking it was safer for us to live here, turns out it was kind of the same,” M.I. added.
M.I. fixed everything on his own. He prefers to stay here in his house and whatever happens is God’s will. His son is scared, shocked, and even afraid to enter the house. As a family, they were traumatized even though they were used to the sound of bombing back in their first country. The big difference between the two countries is that when the rockets hit back there, it was expected, unlike this blasting incident.
The Assyrian committee is the only organization helping him by providing food baskets and constantly checking on his family. Other organizations are discriminating against them simply because they’re not Lebanese!
His first priority now is to find a job as soon as possible in order to pay his rent and purchase the basic stuff his family needs. A later step would be leaving this country in order to provide for his son and wife the life they deserve.