Umm Abdo, 48 years old, a woman from Sudan, married when she was a minor of a Syrian man who is older than her and he has children ( he worked a while in Sudan) she returned with him to Syria to live in the city of Aleppo where the environment is different and customs, traditions, and lifestyle. She did not distinguish between their own children and husband children in anything that Umm Abdo managed by her presence and distinguished personality gain the respect and love of the neighbors in her area in the city of Aleppo and her house became a meeting place for women in the region and whoever listens to the accent Umm Abdo he thinks it’s Aleppo accent, she speaks the Aleppo accent completely.
With the escalation of military actions in the Aleppo city at the end of 2012, Umm Abdo, came to Turkey, like tens of thousands of people who left their homes in search of safety and arrived at a refugee camp on the border, which the Syrians came to it from various regions.
Umm Abdo’s tent is a tent in which all women from different governorates meet to provide them with advice and relieve them of the suffering of asylum and them harsh conditions that help them overcome the harsh conditions of life in the camp because of her distinctive sense of humor and a good and strong personality she has at the same time.
Umm Abdo then moved to a poor popular area in the Gaziantep city, she managed with her attractive personality and loving nature for people to make people gather around her, form Syrians neighbors and even the Turks, where she was serving every Syrian who comes new to the region. she helps any new Syrian who came to ask for help and she helps to find houses and sometimes she helps to find work for women in the homes.
Umm Abdo House has become a gathering and meeting place for the women of the neighborhood, she helps them solve their problems Many of them tell her the problems of violence, which she wrestles with their husbands, they spend with her fun times that reduce the harshness of alienation and life.
Afaf, a neighbor for umm Abdo, a Syrian woman, who has a husband with special needs, says about Umm Abdo if life becomes difficult for us, there is only umm Abdo can help us.
Umm Abdo is one of the women targeted by the Zenobia Association in the Homes for Peace project, which aims to raise the awareness of women in marginalized areas of concepts and knowledge that contribute to women being active in building peace.
Among those personalities was umm Abdo, who was called the mayor because of her influence and effectiveness in her neighborhood, and she accepted the hosting of women in her home to follow the training sessions. Umm Abdo participated in all activities and home sessions carried out by the Zenobia Association in the gender and gender equality session. That reflected the concepts that she received in her public life and in dealing with women in her home and participated in one of the open meetings with her husband, and her effect on her husband was clear in accepting the concepts of equality and accepting the role of active women in society also her effect in her children so clear, especially in their dealings with their wives reflected in the participation of their wives in the activities and meetings carried out by Zenobia Society.
Umm Abdo’s role is pivotal in the participation of neighborhood women in the sessions offered by the Zenobia Association and the open meetings and encouraging them to learn and receive relatively new concepts on them and apply them to their families.
After COVID-19 invaded the world. The Association of Zenobia with Houses for Peace launched an awareness program about the dangers of the Corona epidemic and the necessity of commitment for social distance, especially since all homes for peace in Popular areas are densely populated were applying social spacing is difficult.
Umm Abdo, the free person was one who didn’t take the idea of quarantine seriously, rejected the idea of social distance, and her home continued as a meeting place for women in the neighborhood, and she followed the routine of life with her neighbor every day by meetings and sessions, And how not, and she is the social woman who is distinguished by that and considers her as her strength and distinction.
During the (online) sessions of the awareness campaign on the epidemic of Corona and the session of active citizenship and social responsibility, Umm Abdo realized the importance of her role in the surrounding milieu and the necessity of taking protection and prevention reasons as a matter of personal responsibility and social responsibility that strengthens this, through explaining the facilitator’s examples of infection of a family with Coronavirus transmitted to them from A relative and the family’s suffering and stressed the risks of not adhering to the Quarantine.
Immediately after the session, Umm Abdo said that she would not receive anyone in her home and would adhere to the quarantine and she asked the women to take preventive and protective measures to confront the Corona epidemic and carried out a cleaning campaign for the neighborhood with the neighborhood women order to contribute to the campaign of protection, Upon following up the behavior of Umm Abdo’s neighbors, we observed their followers of what Umm Abdo decided and their commitment to quarantine as well.
The mayor, umm Abdo, one of the women of houses for peace, is now in the popular neighborhood, a model in commitment to the standards of protection and prevention, a model of active citizenship that bears her responsibility towards her family and the surrounding community, as well as a model to influence her peers as a societal influencer who has the desired societal change.
Done on 20/04/2020
