“I am Duaa and this is my father Anwar. We came here as a family of five and fled from Baghdad, Iraq. The conflicts between Sunni and Shia led to constant repression and made it an unsafe place for us to live in. For us, all people are the same and should be treated equal. We heard in Syria is less tension between the different ethnic groups. So we moved to Syria for six years.
After Daesh (IS) came to our city, we decided to flee to Europe. Like many others before us, we went on a small rubber boat to get from Turkey to Greece. It was dark and cold. In the middle of the sea the boat engine broke down and waves pushed water into the boat. The people started to panic. Fortunately we managed to get the engine back to work and made it to Greece after six hours at sea. We asked ourselves: ‘why do we have to go through so much danger just to be safe?’
We are very happy to be in Berlin now. Our ‘camp’ (the official temporary shelter) is a stressful place, but we try to make the best out of it. Our dream is to find a small place for our family and to be able to sleep in privacy again. My father is a men’s outfitter and in Arabic his name means ‘the brightest’. I studied graphic design, but I would love to become a photographer.