Canadian activist shares stories of devastation from his homeland

Khaled Abdulwahed left Syria at 17, only to return at 31, shaken by the scale of devastation he witnessed in a country placed under authoritarian rule for more than two decades.

“Syria needs all hands on deck. Any Syrian man or woman from around the world is needed to rebuild the country.”

Khaled and his direct family faced persecution under Bashar al-Assad’s government. Their two homes near Damascus were demolished beyond recognition, and members of his extended family were detained. Two relatives, he says, died under torture.

“They detained anyone in my family with a similar name. We are a large family, and anyone who shared my first name was detained,” Khaled told OMNI News in Arabic.

Khaled has been an activist calling for Syrian freedom since 2011 when small protests in the country marked the beginning of the Syrian uprising.

“I went immediately to the Umayyad Mosque when I first arrived in Damascus to attend Friday prayers, close to where the revolution’s first demonstration happened. I missed attending the prayer, but I’m glad I was able to come to the place where it all began.”

Canada imposed sanctions against the Syrian government in 2011. The targeted measures included travel and economic sanctions against members of the Syrian government including President Bashar Assad, calling the situation at that time a “grave breach of international peace.”

Now based in Canada, Khaled serves as Administrative Manager of Molham Team Canada. Molham is an international nonprofit founded by Syrian students that provides aid to internally displaced people in Syria and refugees in neighbouring countries.

“Because of my activism, I had to leave Syria when I was 17. I lived in several countries before finally settling in Canada. It was a difficult decision because I thought I would be far away from the people I wanted to help.”

Looking ahead, Khaled envisions a Syria where freedoms are respected, citizens are heard, and “no one dies under torture.”

“The country needs a lot of work. The devastation is immense, but Syria is beautiful and deserves the best”, he said.

On December 8, 2024, an armed rebellion led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions brought down Bashar al-Assad’s government, marking the end of nearly 25 years of his rule. This also concluded the Assad family’s 54-year grip on power, which began when Hafez al-Assad took control in 1970.