Almost four months after the fall of the Assad regime, humanitarian needs in Syria remain critical—especially for families who lost their homes during the conflict. While some displaced people have returned to devastated towns and villages, many remain in overcrowded camps with inadequate shelter. With funding from the European Union, GOAL teams are helping vulnerable families to rebuild their lives by providing dignified, durable shelter in northwest Syria.
Fleeing home in terror
Tariq Al Omaier, 33, lives with his wife and five children in northwest Syria. Before the war, the family lived a modest but hopeful life in a village in the Shashbo Mountain area of southern Idlib.
“I am the sole provider for my family and do not have a fixed source of income. I worked according to the opportunities life provided me, sometimes in farming during the summer for harvesting and in the winter planting wheat and barley,” Tariq explains.
Tariq dreamed of building a sustainable future for his children. But as conflict spread, that future slipped away, "I was very happy with the small fig saplings. I watched them every day, watered them from the house well, and cared for them. I counted the days until they grew and bore fruit. But as they say, nothing lasts forever. Within months, we found ourselves outside our home and village when the conflict broke out. As the army advanced toward us and the barrel bombs intensified, we fled in haste, our eyes fixed on the young fig saplings and our scared animals. We carried nothing but our tears and our intense fear for our children."
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We carried nothing but our tears and our intense fear for our children.
Displacement and hardship
In 2017, the family was forced to flee their home. They endured loss, grief, and instability as they moved from town to town in search of safety.
"I remember at the beginning of our displacement in 2017, the bombing and explosion sounds were terrifying. We couldn’t return to our village for two days while we searched for my missing uncle. Later, we found his body," Tariq recalls.
Unable to give their uncle a proper burial at home due to intense bombardment, the family laid him to rest in the nearby town of Kafr Nabl. From there, their long journey continued, “From Kafr Nabl, we were displaced to the town of Kafr Karmoun in the western countryside of Aleppo, where we stayed for two months. Then, we moved to the village of Al-Bardqli, west of Dana city in northern Idlib, where we stayed for six months.”
Life in displacement brought relentless physical and emotional strain, “We endured great hardship from the cold, hunger, and misery.”
Life in the camps
Eventually, the family settled in a camp in Ma’arat al-Nu’man 2019. Conditions there were extremely difficult—especially in winter, Tariq explains, "We suffered a lot from the high temperatures and constant dust in the summer, and from freezing cold, floods, and mud in the winter.”
Life in the camp was harsh, with tents that offered little protection and came at a steep cost—both financially and physically, “We had to replace the tent's insulation every year due to the severe weather conditions, which was financially exhausting. Respiratory and chest diseases spread, especially in the winter, due to the smoke from burning nylon and cardboard in the stoves. Often, we were unable to afford medicine."
The challenging environment took a toll on their children, "In the camp, my son Mohammed fell ill with meningitis, and his condition worsened due to the dust and intense heat,” Tariq says.
The young boy's treatment lasted for six months and cost around $3,000. While donations helped cover much of the expense, the family still faced crippling costs they couldn’t afford.
“I sold my motorcycle - our only means of transportation - and two sheep from my family to cover part of the cost,” Tariq recalls. Then came another blow during the winter of 2021.
“Strong winds tore apart our tent, and my wife had just given birth—Munther was only six days old. The floods engulfed everything. We had to sleep in the car for three days.”
Finally, the dream came true. Our lives have completely changed for the better.
A dignified shelter - and a new beginning
Tariq’s family is one of many who benefitted from GOAL’s Dignified Shelter Programme, which provides safe, durable housing for displaced families in northwest Syria.
"Our joy was indescribable when we heard about the shelter project and the dignified housing. Finally, the dream came true, and we now live in the new shelter. Our lives have completely changed for the better,” Tariq says with a smile.
The new shelter offered freedom from exploitation and basic comforts they had long gone without. Basic comforts most people take for granted.
“This shelter saved us from the control of the camp's landowner, who had doubled the rent in recent years, and it gave us more privacy. We used to sleep all together under one roof in the tent, with no bathroom or separate toilet.”
Now, the family enjoys a more dignified way of living. Tariq continues, “Now, we live in caravans that are more organised, cleaner, and healthier for us and our children."
"We now have a special room for sitting, another room for my wife and me, a kitchen where we keep our food clean, and a toilet inside the house, connected to a covered sewage system," Tariq says.
Returning home to ruins
After the fall of the Assad regime, Tariq returned to his home village - only to find everything had changed.
"Finally, the long-awaited dream came true, and we were liberated from the Assad regime. I was eager to see my house and village again. But our joy was short-lived, and the pictures I had painted in my mind quickly shattered.”
Everything he had worked for was gone, "The dream was torn apart when I saw the ruins of my house, the well that had been turned into a garbage dump, and the fig trees uprooted from their roots. Even the orange and pomegranate trees in the garden didn't survive.”
The memories were vivid - but so was the loss, “My village, once full of greenery and life, had become a ghost town. Memories flooded back: Here, under this tree, we drank tea with the neighbors, and here, we played and chatted. They destroyed the bakeries, schools, houses, and all the infrastructure, leaving no room for anyone to return and settle. Oh, how painful this is."
Holding on to hope
For now, Tariq and his family have returned to their shelter, holding on to hope for the future.
"All of this forced me to make a difficult decision: to return to the caravans because I felt an overwhelming sense of estrangement I never expected after years of longing, yearning, suffering, and displacement. I had expected that we would shed the clothes of sorrow in the camps and wear the clothes of joy in our homes. But as the saying goes, 'The winds do not always blow as the ships wish.”
Despite the challenges, he continues to hope for a brighter future, “Prices [have] skyrocketed, especially fuel, chaos spread, instability prevails, and job opportunities are scarce. All we can do now is wait and pray to God to bless us with the opportunity to return after the reconstruction”
GOAL in Syria
After more than a decade of conflict, over 6.8 millions Syrians are internally displaced. 70% of Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance and relying on aid to survive day-to-day.
GOAL teams have been working on the ground in Syria since the conflict began in 2012. In 2023, GOAL's emergency response programme has reached over 287,000 newly displaced people with food, cooking supplies and financial assistance. As GOAL engineers repair damage to water network infrastructure, more than 1.3 million people are now able to access clean drinking water in their homes. A further 430,000 people are benefitting from GOAL's bakery programme in North-West Syria.
Impact in Numbers
+1.3 million
Providing clean water to over 1.3 million people
+430,000
Delivering bread to over 430,000 people daily
2.8 million
People supported in 2024
2012
GOAL begins operations in Syria
Louay's Story
Louay Tajiddin, a GOAL Water and Sanitation Engineer in Syria, shares his personal experience of having to leave his job and home due to conflict in Syria.
He highlights the challenges faced by Syrians due to the protracted conflict and the importance of access to basic needs, particularly clean water.
To help vulnerable communities in Syria, Louay used his skills and experience for humanitarian work.
"Seeing more and more vulnerable families suffer under conditions of displacement and conflict was difficult. But I knew that this did not have to be the way. I felt I could do more for my people as someone with expertise in maintaining public service infrastructures. Something that was desperately needed in my community."
Learn more about how Louay and other GOAL staff in Syria, thanks to funding from the European Union, are repairing and delivering clean water to over 800,000 people in northwest Syria.
