The distinguished clicking sound of the visitor’s vehicle was approaching the mosque while it was trotting through the destroyed way that was full of debris, empty shells and holes.
It was for sure not the kind of roads made for small vehicles like the one which Om Samih has been driving to deliver food and other aid supplies in Eastern Ghouta, but Faten Abu Fares, or Auntie Om Samih as everybody in Eastern Ghouta calls her, has become used to all the hardships of siege including driving her half-dead Suzuki Carry through such shattered paths.
Once Om Samih arrives to the mosque, the Imam usually greets her with wide smile wishing her healthy life and long age. She asks him to give her a hand in downloading the truck’s load as soon as possible because she has other people who are waiting for aid in the area.
As soon as Om Samih finishes her mission, she switches on her Suzuki Carry again and heads towards her second round to deliver another load. Things have become increasingly harder for Om Samih after she became the only person who manages “One Hand Relief Charity” after her partner Abu Mershid Medlal was killed in an airstrike by Assad regime one year ago.
Bearing the brunt of Assad’s inhumane siege and everyday shelling on Eastern Ghouta, Om Samih, a holder of BA in English from Damascus University, stood up for the challenge, though being in her 50s.
She gave up her previous job as a translator to devote herself to treat the injured and provide relief aid for the least privileged people in Eastern Ghouta.
When the revolution started in 2011, Om Samih was among the first groups of women and men who took part in the sit-ins and demonstrations in her area. Her son Samih, a medical student, was arrested three years ago, just few months before graduation, for his role in establishing field hospitals and providing medical treatment for injured demonstrators.
Like any mother whose son is behind bars or forcibly disappeared, Om Samih keeps asking frantically for her son’s whereabouts. She is hell-bent on celebrating his graduation as a neurologist once he is released as she says to her neighbors.
After delivering the relief aid, Om Samih goes back to the small apartment where she runs the activities of her charity which originally began as a public kitchen that used to serve poor people with hot meals.
The project expanded and Om Samih substituted the word ‘kitchen’ with ‘foundation’ but kept the same name for it. After her partner Mahmud Mershid Medlal was killed she named the foundation after his name.
The new foundation run by Om Samih provides food supplies, medicine, clothes and school requirements. She also provides sponsorship for 160 orphans in Eastern Ghouta. Om Samih depends mainly on donations sent by friends, acquaintances and philanthropists to support her charity.
It is very common to see Om Samih driving her Suzuki wandering from one place to another in Eastern Ghouta to deliver assistance and make sure that nobody in her area is hungry. She insists on reaching all neighborhoods to deliver food and ice cubes in the hot weather or medicine and some fuel during cold days.
Om Samih likes to be called Auntie Om Samih even by other women or people older than her. She remembers with a laugh that the harsh interrogator, who was questioning her in Al-Khateeb notorious security branch in Damascus, slapped her many times on the face while mocking her by saying: “Who do you think yourself? Mother Teresa!”
Every sunset Om Samih visits the town’s graveyard to read verses from the Holy Quran and pray for the martyrs. She cleans the tombs’ stones, with special care for Abu Mershid’s grave.
Adapted from the original story in Arabic published in Freedomraise
التعليقات (0)