Two kilometres from Syria, and they would not let me cross

Two weeks ago the Head of Security intel told me:

"You can't enter Syria. There's an attack being planned."

I could not believe it. I was there, at the greatest moment in Syrian history. The border was two kilometres away and completely closed. I was heartbroken. Now I understand why.

Where the photo was taken

Yayladağ, Hatay, on the Turkish side. Two kilometres from Syria, near Kasab and the Taurus Mountains. I was on the ground with the Watan Foundation, which channels over $30 million a year into education, healthcare and livelihood programs for families returning home.

I served as a U.S. Board Member for Watan from December 2024 to August 2026, from Houston and Medellín.

What the next step actually is

Dismantling refugee camps and helping families return home safely.

That sentence sounds like progress and it is, but it is worth sitting with what it means. A camp is terrible and a camp is also functioning. There is water in it. There is a school tent. Taking it apart only counts as help if the place people are returning to has more than the camp had. That is the part of this work nobody photographs: not the crossing, the two years after it.

The part I am not going to pretend about

I run a marketing and automation company in Houston. None of what I do there rebuilds a village. The honest version is that I went, I could not cross, I sat on a border, and I came back to a business that was fine without me for a week.

What I can do is the boring part. Sit on a board, help a large amount of money stay accountable, and tell people what I saw. That is not a business lesson. It is just what happened.

"You can't rebuild a nation until you rebuild belief."

Syria is free.

Basim Mousilli. Written from Yayladağ, December 2024.