Syria, Damascus Countryside -- “I was given life again.” This is how Ranim, a divorced 16 year-old girl and a violence survivor from Syria, said to express her status when she met Dr. Amal at the UNFPA-Syria supported clinic.

Ranim is a bright girl with a clever mind and determined personality. She was displaced from her home city in Homs, Syria when the crisis raised. She, then, was obliged to marry her cousin when she turned 14 years old.

Ranim never had the chance to pursue her studies after she graduated from the sixth grade. She says that if she was given her rights, she would be in a school now and not a divorced mother with a 2 year-old girl.

Her life has been broken off for a while after she was divorced. Her family comes from a conservative background where girls are not fully provided with privileges nor their rights. Ranim explains how she was weak and incapable of defending herself when she hears people talking about her behind her back. However, her character changed after she visited UNFPA- supported clinic in the neighborhood.

“I was given strength and power. I’m courageous now”, Ranim says. She explains her experience with the social worker she met, during her regular visits to the clinic based in Damascus countryside, as a life changing experience.

Ranim received health services to herself and her baby, as well. She also receives psycho-social consultancy on a regular basis that helped her to overcome the hard times she faced and get out the overwhelming status she lived because of her marriage. She has been informed also about her rights and she fully understands them.

Ranim nowadays works at a sewing workshop in Damascus to earn her living, and she is gradually turning back to enjoy ordinary life, “I only wish to give my daughter a happy and stable life that was stolen from me,” she concluded with loads of tears in her gloomy eyes.