From Toronto to Damascus: Syrians return home aiming to rebuild country
Families like the Tasabehjis aim to rebuild Syria, fostering community and hope despite economic and social challenges. Damascus, Syria – When the al-Assad regime fell
Families like the Tasabehjis aim to rebuild Syria, fostering community and hope despite economic and social challenges. Damascus, Syria – When the al-Assad regime fell in December 2024, Yasseen Tasabehji and his family did not originally plan on returning to Syria. Tasabehji, now 33, his four siblings and his parents had moved to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto in Canada, in 2010, a year before the start of the Syrian uprising and subsequent war. They’d built what Tasabehji describes as a “quite good” life and didn’t plan on ever returning. During the war years, his mother returned once to visit family, but the rest of the family did not. “The Syrian file was just closed for all of us,” Tasabehji told Al Jazeera. “We had the feeling that we would never go back.” Then, in late 2024, a rebel operation took Aleppo from the al-Assad regime and carried on to Hama and Homs. Within a matter of days, the al-Assad family had fled to Moscow and the Syrian opposition were celebrating the liberation of Damascus. For Tasabehji and his family, a “Pandora’s box opened”, he said. “It coincided with a time in our lives when we were thinking, ‘OK, what’s next? What do we want to do?’ We were looking for a sense of purpose, a sense of fulfilment.” Tasabehji said he and his siblings all had good jobs, as well as friends and family. But they still felt a calling. “We felt like this might be it. We might be able to do something here.” The family visited in April 2025 with the idea of possibly opening a climbing gym – a couple of the siblings are serious climbers.
After a monthlong trip to see family in Damascus, the siblings packed their bags back in Canada and moved to Syria permanently in July. “We saw a country that needs everything, and we felt like any addition will make a huge difference,” Tasabehji told Al Jazeera, sitting comfortably inside the family’s climbing gym – they decided to follow through with the idea – in Damascus’s Mezzeh neighbourhood. The family are already trying to give back, running a number of programmes at the climbing gym to help young Syrians build self-esteem and form a community. As he spoke, Tasebehji’s sister was teaching a class of young children and his father, who is still based in Canada with their mother, but is now also considering making a permanent move, sat against a climbing wall. “We saw how young people have no options, no healthy communities, no health activities, no place to just gather and feel good. And everybody wanted to leave,” he said. “It became a goal of ours to make Syria more attractive to young people, so that they can see a future here.” Returning home Tasabehji and his siblings are just a few of the 1.5 million Syrians who have returned to the country since the country’s former President Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus. Many were refugees in places like Turkiye or Lebanon, while others were working in Europe or the Gulf and decided they wanted to return to their country. There is optimism among many returnees, despite economic difficulties and rising energy costs, and now, hope to rebuild their homes and their lives.
The BriefWire