A family cannot rebuild on land that kills
In Syria, families are beginning the long journey home after 15 years of conflict. Many return with hope of rebuilding their homes, restarting their livelihoods, and giving their children the safety they’ve been denied for so long.
But hope belies a hidden danger. Homes, fields, roads and playgrounds are littered with landmines and unexploded bombs. For families returning home, the war has ended, but the danger has not.
Maryam, a mother based close to Hama where MAG has opened a new operating base said:
“Everyone here knows someone who has been killed or injured. The landmines are everywhere. For farmers and people who live from the land, the land is death.”
Maryam
Maryam’s own situation is truly harrowing.
Maryam lost three of her five children in a single accident close to their home. Sahar, 15, and Fatima, 14, were travelling in a car driven by 18-year-old Kareem, along with toddler Hameed, when the vehicle struck a landmine. Sahar, Fatima and Hameed were killed instantly. Kareem was left fighting for his life in hospital.
The children had been searching for truffles and collecting firewood on land the family uses for grazing sheep, land they believed was safe. This incident is far from isolated. In Syria, around four people are killed or injured by landmines and unexploded bombs every single day.
Please give what you can today to help give families like Maryam’s back their land and their freedom.
Maryam holds Layla close, her only child who was not involved in the incident.
“I didn’t realise it was them. I couldn’t recognise the car. Then I realised it was Sahar, and that she was dreadfully injured. I lost my mind and fainted. Then I saw Fatima, and realised it was both my daughters and my baby boy.”
Abu Mohammad, the children's grandfather said, “we thought the land was safe. It is our main source of income. We graze our sheep there and fatten them for market.”
“We are poor,” Maryam said. “The children wanted to collect truffles and wood to sell, so they could have a little money of their own. They kept asking when they could go.”
This is the daily reality for so many families in Syria, and in communities around the world, still living with landmines and unexploded ordnance.
No family should have to bury their child because the ground beneath their feet, the very land that means home, safety, livelihood, turned out to be the thing that killed them.
Please give today, to enable deminers to clear these threats before they claim more lives, and help families finally trust the land beneath them again.
Mofida Majzoub, one of MAG’s demining experts, told me the scale of Syria’s landmine problem is unlike anything she’s seen:
“Many devices are lodged in the rubble of destroyed homes. Schools, mosques and other public buildings are affected too. How can you rebuild your home when there is a daily risk of death or injury?”
In one village, her team even found IEDs that had been laid by the former regime around the graveyard.
A country cannot rebuild while its land remains lethal. Every school left unchecked, every home left uncleared, is another family forced to risk their lives while simply trying to rebuild and recover.
Yet amid this crisis, there are also reasons for hope. At the new base in Hama, the same area where Maryam’s family suffered their loss, newly recruited deminers, community liaison staff and medics are preparing to protect more communities. While this is something to be proud of, it is also a reminder of how urgent the need remains. Our teams are in a race against time to find and destroy explosives before they claim more lives in the face of more people returning home across Syria.
Together, we can help ensure that no more families in Syria, and around the world, suffer the loss that Maryam has endured.
