Never forgotten, Khloud finds hope in a collapsing home
“Please, don’t forget us. We still need help”.
These are the words that came from Khloud’s* trembling voice. Sitting inside their nearly collapsing house in northern Syria, with her four young children huddled close, she reflects on everything they had endured to return “home” after the crisis in Lebanon, only to find it totally different than what she always remembered, a shell of the place she once knew.
Khloud and her husband never imagined they’d face this much hardship in such a short time. The family thought they had seen it all after being displaced from Syria to Lebanon in 2018 due to the crisis in their area in northern Syria. But a few years later, the same tape rolled again but this time in Lebanon. When heavy bombardment destroyed their neighborhood in Lebanon after the December 2024 escalations, they had no option but to run, to save their children and return to the only home they had known. “We left Syria hoping for a fresh start in Lebanon but after over six years trying to rebuild our lives, crisis happened again and we were left with no choice but to displace again,” Khloud explains.
Their journey to safety turned into a nightmare.
An agent, who promised to help them cross the Syrian border, handed them over to an armed group when they reached Syria. The group stole everything, even the tiny gold earrings from their daughters. Khloud was even forced to undress as they searched for valuables. Terrified and humiliated, they were then abandoned in the cold, dark, Syrian desert with no water, food, or money. “We gave our savings to this man we trusted but instead, we were left behind in the middle of nowhere with my crying baby and terrified children. We had to walk for hours searching for any life. We thought we’d die there,” she emotionally shared.
But rescue finally came.
Local shepherds stumbled upon the exhausted, frightened family and offered help, giving them water and letting them contact their relatives who later came and picked them up and dropped them at their home.
But even after reaching home, the horrors they experienced took a serious mental toll. Shortly after, Khloud’s husband, Kamal, became diabetic and developed breathing difficulties due to the trauma they experienced, further elevating their struggles, “I couldn’t find work and my husband’s condition kept him from working, leaving us with growing expenses and unpaid debt,” explained Khloud.
Khloud’s children standing in front of their collapsing home in Syria
A helping Hand
That’s when things finally turned around. The family heard about the Giro 555 support through World Vision emergency livelihood project through neighbors. The project is dedicated to providing relief baskets to those in Syria affected by the Lebanon crisis. Khloud’s family were thrilled and submitted a request for support. Through the generous funding from Giro 555, the family received immediate support; three food baskets filled with canned food and essential staples, and a winter kit containing six mattresses, two rugs, and six warm blankets.
“This contribution may seem small to some, but it meant the world to us. Finally, someone cared,” Khloud happily concludes.
The food gave them strength. The mattresses and blankets brought them warmth and a sense of safety in their modest home. And most importantly, they no longer felt forgotten.
Thanks to this vital support from donors like Giro 555, the family of six can look ahead with a glimmer of hope.
They are not the only ones who benefited from the Giro 555 fund, more than 180 other families and over 1400 participants benefited from the food baskets and winter kits.
Khloud sitting in her home with her children.
With this vital support, families who had lost everything are now taking the first steps toward rebuilding their lives.
*Names are changed to protect identity.
