Podcast: Voices from the diaspora

Amman- Eight years after the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution, Syria’s civil war remains one of the most important issues facing the international community. The world is still occupied with the “Syrian Refugee question,” a question whose answer is found not only in policy, but also in the deeply touching stories that Syrians carry with them on their journey to a better life. Many of these stories are being heard for the first time.

In the new podcast, “Voices from the Diaspora,” Syria Direct, with the support of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), has created three episodes, each dealing with a different issue facing the Syrian Diaspora.

The first episode deals with Syrians who live in the Arab Gulf, specifically in Saudi Arabia. The episode investigates how the political developments in the kingdom have affected Syrians, especially in light of their inability to return to their country, which is still embroiled in a civil war.

We follow the story of two young men who decide to leave Saudi Arabia in search of a country who will take them in. One of the men reached Greece, and the other is in Canada, awaiting approval of his wife and children’s visas.

The second episode follows the lives of non-Syrian Arabs who were living in Syria prior to the revolution, but fled the country among the waves of refugees after 2011. This episode tells the story of the hardships that faced these refugees in their journeys and their sense of displacement, despite being citizens of other Arab countries.

We conclude in the third episode with one of the most important issues facing the Syrian Diaspora: the fracturing of the Syrian family.

As a result of host countries’ policies and the difficulties Syrians have faced in reaching countries who would accept them, Syrian families have been broken apart and spread across the world.

In this episode, we tell the story of a Syrian refugee in Jordan who faces two impossible choices: Either go to America with her husband and smallest child, or stay in Jordan with her disabled eldest son whose entry was refused by America.

The podcast episodes will be published in Arabic only, however, we will be publishing three articles in English that deal with the same issues.

The podcast is hosted by four of Syria Direct’s Syrian correspondents, as well as by four Syrian-journalists-in-training. The trainees took part in Syria Direct’s journalist training program, as well as in podcast production under the supervision of sowt.com.

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This report is part of a podcast training project conducted by Syria Direct in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation