“My friends tell me not to hesitate – moving to Canada will be the best thing that ever happened to us.”

My husband was a municipal employee in Daraa, Syria. On his way to work, one day, fighting broke out on the roadway and everyone panicked, and the result was a six car pile-up. My husband was severely injured. We were living in an area affected by a lot of fighting and decided that it was a good time to leave and seek safety and medical attention elsewhere.
We drove south to Jordan where they sent us straight to Zaatari camp. We hoped things would settle and we could return home, but it’s been three years now. I arrived in the camp when I was five months pregnant. After living the first winter in a tent, where it flooded to my waist, I sold my gold jewelry to buy my family a caravan that measures 3-by-5 meters. We had to buy a tarp to drape over it, but it still leaks. Life can be hard in Zaatari – like survival of the fittest.
The moment I set foot on the bus from Zaatari camp (to go to the resettlement processing centre), I was so excited. I just know things are getting better for us.
Asmaa shared her story as she, her husband and their six children were at the resettlement processing centre in Amman, Jordan. They were about to become eight of the 25,000 Syrians to be resettled in Canada by early 2016.
I don’t know much about Canada, but I know it will be safer for my children. I hope my husband and I can finally have our own bedroom again, that we can have a room for the boys and one for the girls. Our neighbors in Daraa had a small garden they would let us sit in. I would like to feel free to sit in the sun somewhere in Canada. I've only had nine years of school, and want to master the English language so I can continue my education.
It’s hard to leave everything we know behind, but this is a better future for all of us, especially the children. My friends tell me not to hesitate – moving to Canada will be the best thing that ever happened to us.
from I am a migrant (IOM)