Sara's Story

Growing up in Juba, in southern Sudan, Sara attended private Christian schools where the instruction was mostly in Arabic. English was given as one subject, and there were no computers. She finished high school in 1990 and got her diploma in Literature. She studied psychology in university for two years because the church paid for it. But when they stopped paying, she had to stop her studies. In 1997, she got married. Her husband has a university degree as an accountant and did an internship-training for a couple of months. He was forced to serve in the military, however, and decided to leave the country before completing his military service.

Coming to Lebanon

In 1998, Sara took a flight from Khartoum to Damascus. She spent four years in Syria with husband. The UN office in Syria had a problem with the office in Geneva, and closed their offices in Syria, and all the files of the Sudanese people who had applied fore refugees status were closed. Since their file was closed, Sara, her husband, and all the other Sudanese started coming into Lebanon illegally.

Having left four months before, her husband had found a job working at a restaurant in Jounnieh, with a house next door. Sara went in a Mercedes with her 6-month old twins, a Sudanese friend, and two others to Lebanon. They left Damascus in the morning, arrived to the driver’s village in Lebanon for lunch in the afternoon, and then left again at two in the morning. They arrived to their place in Beirut around six in the morning.

They lived in Jounnieh for about a week when her husband found a new job in Jenna Restaurant in Beit Meri. They lived next to the restaurant. For those first two years, Sara didn’t work because of her small children. When they were two years old, she found out about Dar Al Awlad School and Nursery and was able to leave her children there. She immediately found work cleaning in two houses, one time a week. Then she found work in Fanar. The next year, the people left for Saudi, and she didn’t find other work. They lived in Beit Meri for six years.

Because the UN has not reopened their file, they decided that her husband should try to go to Greece through Turkey, and then maybe find a way to resettle somewhere in Europe. Two days before the July War of 2006 ended, Sara’s husband went in a van with other Sudanese, Ethiopian and Indian people. They got caught in Syria, where they were beaten and had their money and things stolen from them. They were all sent to jail to be sent back to their countries.

Her husband called her from the Syrian jail. He stayed there for four months, trying to call her every two weeks. Sara called his family and they sent him money to get a ticket to Sudan in December 2006. It cost $300 for the one-way ticket. The Philemon Project helped covered these costs. Pastor Wilbert sent the money to the Sudanese Embassy in Syria, and they got his papers in order. He had to make a new passport.

Almost two years later, her husband is still in Sudan. But he is trying to come back to Lebanon now. He’s staying in Juba, where he’s from. He has a problem with the government. Because he didn’t finish his term with the army, they can conscript him at any time. He can’t go to Khartoum because he could be picked up at a checkpoint. In the village, it will be harder for them to pick him up. He also has another problem in that he has converted to Christianity from Islam. If his community were to find out, they might kill him.

He isn’t working.

Her Current Situation

Six months ago, Sara moved with her three young children to Nabaa in Beirut. She kept her work in the two houses in Beit Mari. But because transport was costing her L.L. 5000 ($3.33) to go and come, she wasn’t making enough money. She would work for three hours at L.L 5000 an hour. And she was spending all her time traveling. She hasn’t found any work in Beirut.

Now she’s scared to move around because she doesn’t have legal papers. Her friend, Mary, who has UN refugee status was caught by the authorities and has been in the Baabda Prison for the past month. She has two small children who go to Dar Al Awlad with Sara’s children. Their husband watches them, along with Sara, Sylvia, and the other Sudanese in their neighborhood.

The International Community Church

Father Martin’s church in Tabaris which is popular with many of the Sudanese is all Catholic, and Sara wanted to worship in a Protestant church. About four years ago, she started attending the National Evangelical Church in Beirut where she met Pastor Wilbert. She has built up a strong trust with Pastor Wilbert. She says he regularly calls her to pick up food parcels, that always include milk and Pampers. The Philemon Project has also helped her with rent and school fees.

Her Business

Sara and her friend, Sylvia, opened a Sudanese restaurant last September. Currently, it is only open on Sundays. They are trying their best to pay the rent for the place, and the opening costs. The rent is $150. Electricity is between $20 and $25 a month. Food is expensive. At the end of the month, they might each end up with $35 each. Sara would like to be able to do some business importing and exporting goods between Sudan and Lebanon.

Her Future Plans

Sara would also like to study English, like her friend Sylvia who has received a scholarship from the Fellowship of Sudanese Congregations in Lebanon.

She says Sudan is full of people with education who can’t get jobs, because there are no jobs. But she’s heard that, starting recently, some work has been starting to pop up in Juba. When her husband is able to come to Lebanon, she wants to go to Sudan by herself and see if there are any possibilities there.

Because of her husband’s precarious political and social situation, she has more freedom to move around. She wants to assess the situation. But the children would stay with their dad in Lebanon. Now that the twins are in second grade, it’s not so easy to move them around. Sara doesn’t want them to miss any school. They are enrolled in a good school at Dar Al Awlad and have strong English and Arabic and are learning computers. Sara says she would never be able to find or afford such a school in Sudan.

Right now, her situation is precarious because she has no legal papers. The only real future she can see for herself is in a third country. All of her family went to Egypt in 2003 and were resettled by the UN. Her father has died, and she has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. The oldest brother in Canada put his mother and their youngest brother on his file. A brother and married sister are in Australia, and another single sister is in the Netherlands. Since Sara is married, her siblings cannot put her on their file. Because she went through Syria, where the UN closed all the files, it seems that she missed her chance. Now the UN has stopped giving out cards.

There is the possibility that Dar Al Awlad will be able to get her a residency permit, since her kids can have residency permits when they are enrolled in an officially-registered, private school. If she had a residency permit, she could have some sense of security, and be able to find more work, take some classes, and hopefully build her business.