A small backpack. It can’t be heavy. You can only pack the most important belongings: identification papers, valuables that can be sold (that’s if there’s anything valuable left), one change of clothes. You might consider packing some bread if you had any. You can’t pack your bed. Your closet. The sofa by the window where […]
I write this after ten days of the worst suffering I have witnessed in the last seven years. I hold my breath, as does everyone else here, and my chest is filled with sorrow due to the continuing horrors I have witnessed, as the shelling has not ceased. The shelling on civilians has decreased, but […]
In detention (house arrest in the cellar) if we can get one meal a day then we are fine because most of our homes were damaged and people in #Ghouta were not able to store anything in their homes already. Currently, there is no street traffic and there are no markets or shops in the […]
Please, please take a few minutes to read what doctor Housam Adnan wrote from #EasternGhouta yesterday: From the womb of the dead For more than twenty years, the scalpel was my companion Dancing between my fingers, while I do my work very quietly At the end of each day I whisper to it: You did […]
About a month ago the shelling started to intensify, so I went underground with my family to the shelter in Harasta. The shelter is an open basement space, not divided into rooms. It holds 50 families, including around 170 women and children, all scared and hungry. The glass in the windows had been broken by […]
PAX wants to continue to give people in Syria a voice. Here is a story by Nivin, who escaped death yesterday in her house in Eastern Ghouta. To all those who know me My usual place is here under this window I work on my laptop here, I study online here, I write statuses here. […]
Monday 13 November 2:08 pm Syria, Al-Atareb. A crowded marketplace. A clear, blue sky. Suddenly there are two explosions at the vegetable market on the central market square. Shortly afterwards two more. And then two more. Dust and debris everywhere. Survivors walk around, confused and in shock. Rescue teams immediately spring into action to look […]
A few months ago, I was invited to speak at a conference at the Vatican. I was asked to talk about nuclear disarmament and the role of civil society. I talk about that a lot, so I felt pretty comfortable accepting the invitation. But the conference programme evolved (as often happens) and before I knew […]
We should not close our eyes when ethnic cleansing is happening. When people are incited by a deliberate and targeted campaign, as is happening in Myanmar, we should speak out against this deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing. That is what PAX has also learned from its work at the Balkans, say PAX staff Miriam Struyk […]
When he was just 13 years old, Firoz was walking to school in the Afghan province Parwan with his friends. The year was 1996, and by then the country had been in a state of conflict since the 1970’s, and explosive remnants of war including landmines contaminated much of the country. Firoz and his friends […]