by Madeline Edwards

Hop onto any one of the public minibuses parked on the street outside, and you can be in Damascus in about an hour or two. It’s one of many reminders of home here at Women Now, a center run by Syrian women refugees in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley.

Among those reminders is a shared grief: last summer, almost all of the women in the center received death notices from the Syrian government for husbands, brothers and other loved ones who disappeared into Assad’s notorious prison system. Many had been detained for years, since the early days of protests that would later morph into a war that has since driven these women and their children across the border into Lebanon.

In a space where nearly everyone has endured loss, how do you keep moving forward?

This report is part of a series on Syrian women and peacebuilding, produced by Syria Direct with support from the Canadian Embassy in Amman. The views or opinions expressed during the series are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Syria Direct.