Making art to save my children.

MY STORY

My name is Eissa Kilo.

I am a single-father of two wonderful children, and an aspiring Web3 entrepreneur.

I was born in Syria 27 years ago, and have "lived" here all my life.

Except, "living" has been anything but lively.

Life in Syria is like living in Hell, every single day.

I went to school at 5 years old, and had to leave at 10 to work for my family.

When I was young I would tend to the goats and sheep on my family's land.

Everyone in my family had to work hard, but life was managable.

Then, on March 15th, 2011, everything changed...

The Civil War started in Syria, and for the past 12 years, it has been everything except civil.

Millions of people, children & women, murdered.

Thousands more captured and tortured.

I was one of them...

When I was 16, in 2013, I wanted to organize a protest against the dictatorship.

I began spreading my plans for the protest, and the night before it took place, I was arrested.

I will not speak of the torture that was done to me, and what I witnessed that was even worse.

It is unimaginable to most people.

In order for me to get out of Syrian prison, which is nothing like prisons in other countries, my family had to sell everything.

After I got out of prison, I returned home to find out that my mother died from a heart attack.

She couldn't bear with the reality of me being tortured in prison.

I fell to the floor, I was heartbroken...

Then three months later, my 3 brothers & father went to the city of Aleppo to find some work.

On their train ride back to my village, a bomb was detonated.

My brothers & father were blown up, their bodies exploded into dust...

I wept and wept and wept, until my grandfather told me to be strong.

So, I remained strong ... despite me losing my entire immediate family in less than 4 months.

My grandfather recommended that I should marry and have kids, he told me that he wanted to meet my children before he died.

So I found a woman, fell in love with her, we got married, and had three children.

Things were ok, until she got frustrated with my lack of income.

I worked as a plastic collector, picking up plastic and refurbishing it, for 18 hours a day, every day of the week, just to provide my wife and children with food, water, and shelter.

My wife did not accept my limitations, so she flipped on me and started to become mean to me and our children.

She would scream at our children, and hit them. This made me insane.

When she was pregnant with our third child, she told me she wanted a divorce, and an abortion...

I told her I would not accept, but she persisted in threatening me with the abortion.

So, I offered her everything I owned, in exchange for her keeping the baby.

She gave birth to my third son, Farouk, and then left us...

I had no mother for Farouk to breastfeed, so I begged every woman in my village who could produce milk to help feed my newborn son.

Today, Farouk is 7 months old, and he is the joy of my life.

My middle son, Musa, died this year in March from Tuberculosis, which I am currently battling myself. 

We tried to save Musa, I asked my Twitter friends for help, but I was ashamed to ask, so by the time the money for his treatment arrived, it was too late.

Musa died due to lack of healthcare, from living in a country with corrupt government, unstable institutions,  and poor infrastructure.

A lack of money in Syria is the difference between life and death...

But Musa is no longer suffering here. He is in Heaven, being our angel.

My oldest son, Youssef, is seven years old.

He lives in fear daily, as bombings, murder, the earthquakes, and general life in Syria has punctured his innocence.

He is too old to be unaware of the horror.

Because of this, Youssef is constantly sad and lethargic. He is afraid of living in Syria, and has no school, no friends, no anything - except me & Farouk.

My goal is to help Youssef go to school and grow up to become a successful leader in a career field he chooses.

My story is hard to tell, because every day is beyond difficult.

I lost my home in the earthquake, I lost my grandfather to death a few months ago...

I have tuberculosis, which I have been treating with medicine thanks to the help of the good people in Web3.

Without this medicine, I would be dead, and nobody would be here to care for my children.

Web3 is saving our lives...

A couple months ago, I was faced with mandatory military conscription. In which you have to join the army, or pay a hefty exemption fee... My friends in Web3 helped me pay this fee.

Thanks to the VV community, I was able to obtain three passports for me and my children.

Our plan is to flee Syria and settle in Turkey for a while, with our ultimate goal of gaining resettlement status in Canada.

I believe in my heart that cooperation is the key to personal and group success.

Without cooperation, we can't do anything worthwhile.

So this is my plea to anyone reading this...

Please help me escape Syria and provide safety for my children. There is not a night that passes where I am not prepared for my children to be kidnapped. That's how evil this place is...

Please help me raise 5.5 eth so I can get into Turkey. 

You are my only hope.

Love,

- Eissa Kilo