Fatima Kenno

42-year-old Fatima Kenno was born in a village in Aleppo (Nothern Rif-Halab) in Syria. She dropped out of primary school despite her mother’s attempts to convince her father to keep her at school. She tried to adapt to a life of farming but in vain, her mind was always wandering to where students were learning to read and write…

As she became a young woman, she agreed to marry her cousin Ali.

With Ali, she lived a stable and peaceful life; she gave birth to seven children as they moved from one area in Lebanon to another for 15 years while her husband worked different jobs, until he settled as the concierge of a building near the port of Beirut.

With a heavy heart, Fatima recalls the events of the horrific August 4, 2022. It was past 6 PM when she felt the furniture in the room she lives in shattering, and an unbearable stabbing pain in her body. She tried to get on her feet but she couldn’t move.

Before she passed out, she looked around her and saw her daughter Cedra laying on the floor; she was still breathing, but soon after she shivered amidst a heavy poisonous gray smoke, and her face turned blue. At that moment, Fatima felt a stab in her heart, her daughter had died.

In the hospital, she was extremely anxious when she woke up and found out she was on her own. She saw an intravenous catheter inserted into her vein, and she was in pain. A doctor came in shortly afterwards and explained the injuries she sustained. He told her she was fine, but she will never be able to walk like she used to. After the explosion, she was unable to balance her walking as she sustained a leg injury and a fractured spine; she now relies on a crutch for support.

Fatima spent 25 days at the hospital and she was discharged with physical and emotional wounds. She fears people and she believes they tuned into monsters who couldn’t care less about the harm they are causing others around them. Despite her physical pain, Fatima’s biggest pain is her longing for her daughter’s eyes; a pain she chokes on, but she can’t say a word.