After graduating college with a degree in accounting, Tarek began to build a successful life for himself in his hometown, Damascus, Syria. However, when the revolution began in Syria in 2012, and the war escalated, Tarek and his family left for Turkey, where he faced lots of racism because they didn’t want to accept the Syrian refugees that were coming to escape the violence. He struggled to find a landlord that would rent to a Syrian family. “One landlord placed a map in front of me,” he explains, “and told me to point to where I was from. I was allowed to rent because I was from Damascus, not everyone was as lucky.”
However, Tarek’s experience in Turkey was far from easy. “I worked 12 hour work days in addition to 5 hours of side accounting jobs, just to support my family. It was up to me to support my brother, my sister, and my parents.” Tarek learned to be adaptable, working jobs as an accountant, a tailor, a manufacturing worker, salesman, and when Covid-19 hit, he became a diver. However, he talks about how that moment of dissolution, where he lost all his jobs and resorted to taxi driving, was actually a blessing, because he met so many people that would end up helping his career. He met many doctors during a time where the medical field was one of the few industries thriving during the pandemic. “I became an accountant to numerous doctor offices. That is what got me through such an economic crisis.”
In 2021, Tarek faced one of the most difficult times for his family. His father got sick, facing heart and respiratory issues. After a year of treatments, the doctor told Tarek to prepare for his father’s death. The day his doctor told him this, his mother went with him to pick out clothes for his funeral and to choose a headstone and grave plot. Three days later, his mother was suddenly ill and within two weeks, she was gone. “The clothes she helped me pick out for my father’s funeral, I ended up wearing at my mother’s. And the headstone and plot she chose for my father, was actually where we buried her,” Tarek notes solemnly. “I received a call from the hospital around 4 in the morning. They told me she died in Turkish, but when I saw her body, I thought they were lying. The color was still on her face, she looked like herself, full of light, completely at ease”
“The connection my mother and I share is deep,” Tarek continued, reminiscing. “I feel when she is tired, I feel her when she is in pain. After she died, I felt her at ease.”
“On the day of her funeral, the drive to the cemetery took only 30 minutes, instead of the 1.5 that it usually takes with traffic. It was a rainy day. People kept slipping in the mud. As we carried her casket, we all kept slipping, but her casket did not slip or fall with us, it looked as if it was floating. It stayed put, standing in mid air.”
“Three months later, my father died in my lap.”
After that, there was little motivation to stay in Turkey. Work was difficult with covid, and his parents passed away, removing an obligation to stay to take care of them. Therefore, when his papers were finally approved to come to the US (8.5 years after application), he thought he should take advantage of this new opportunity. Forfeiting his chance for Turkish citizenship, Tarek decided to take a chance in California.
While in Turkey, Tarek began building a life. He got married and had two children, but their futures were still very limited due to his inability to find proper work because of the pandemic. He believed the US would bring better opportunities. However, the day before the family was set to travel, Tarek received a phone call from his friend residing in California. He was told that the US will no longer be assisting in his resettlement. Typically refugees are provided housing for three months and financial assistance, however, they stated that unless his friend can provide housing, he will not be allowed to enter the US. The day before his travels, when Tarek had already sold his belongings, forfeited his residency, and moved out of his flat, he became at the mercy of his friend who agreed to take his family in.
Yet this would be far from his greatest challenge in the United States. Forced to split the family and have his wife and kids stay with another friend, it was very hard to build a new life right away, but he got to work. Tarek would not have survived in California if it wasn't for the support of kind hearted people that he met along his journey. A woman helped him find a home by placing her name on an apartment lease since he struggled to find a landlord who would accept him without any credit history or official income. He was able to receive a donated car from Sabil and it allowed him to stop taking the bus, a 2.5 hour commute everyday, to work at a restaurant. The car also allowed him to find connections to job opportunities and he began selling wholesale products across the country, from Arizona to Arkansas to Washington DC, selling items to make ends meet.
Now Tarek is trying to build a new life for himself and his family. He is taking ESL classes at a local college and is working as hard as he can to support his children and move into a bigger space. Right now, his family of four are sharing a one bedroom apartment, but his daughter is seven years old and he wants her to have her own room. “She needs her space as she grows up, I want to provide her with everything she needs,” he explains.
Thanks to all the help Tarek has received from selfless people and local organizations, he does his best to show his appreciation and give back in any way he can. He spends his weekend mornings volunteering with his family at Sabil USA, packaging food to distribute to others less fortunate as well as providing data and accounting assistance when he can.
Tarek is eager to find secure and stable employment in order to begin building up his family’s life in his new home. He’s done it once before in Turkey, and he will do it once again in California.
It is not easy to build your life up from scratch; it is especially difficult when you feel the pressure to be a supportive husband for your wife that misses her home and to a seven year old daughter and a five year old son who look up to you and see the world. “As a father, all you want to do is show them a world worth living,” Tarek explains, the determination and resilience written on his face. “And Inshallah, that is what I will do.”
