''Refugee is not a bad word": Meet the young women from Syria dreaming of higher education

Record ID: 1558046

  • Title: ''Refugee is not a bad word": Meet the young women from Syria dreaming of higher education
  • Date: 19th June 2020
  • Summary: BAR ELIAS, BEKAA, LEBANON (JUNE 18, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 20, AMANI EL MASRI, SAYING: "This is how I study." JOURNALIST ASKING: "Do you like studying?" "Yes. This is what…I don't know why I have become emotional now. This is the only thing…This is the only thing that would make me go back to Syria, so I can contribute to something that would benefit me before anything else. To study. I want to have the chance to continue (my education).'' (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 20, AMANI EL MASRI, SAYING: "Our situation doesn't allow me to study at my parents' expense. We can't. My father has health issues and my mother is no longer working.'' SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT RAHAF MICHO ON A SWING IN THE SCHOOL GROUNDS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "Hi, I am Rahaf Misho, from Aleppo, Syria. I am studying Business Management at the University of Saint Joseph in Beirut. My ambition is to finish my studies as soon as I can and do my Master's degree outside of Lebanon so that I can achieve my dreams.'' MICHO SPEAKING DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "I'm dreaming to work with international NGO to involve more in social refugee issues to help them because I know what they are suffering, and I want to help them as much as I can especially in educational cases.'' MICHO SPEAKING DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "The situation in Aleppo was even harder (when we went back the second time). During that time, there was shelling, siege. I remember when I used to go to school there was a sniper on the other side of the road. I could only do one month of Grade 10. And then my father was too afraid for us all so we had to come back (to Lebanon)." MICHO SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "I am very proud of myself, that I have reached this point looking back at the things I have been through and now I am at university and I am thinking of doing my Masters. I never thought I would get here. What I went through was really bad.'' MICHO SHOWING A CLASS ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "I remember (in Aleppo) I was a very spoiled daughter. My biggest worry was what kind of car I would be driving to school and now…I spend my time in public transport, public vans, between Beirut and Chtaura. I was spoiled, I was living a good life which for sure I don't have here. That is what I remember about Aleppo.'' MICHO INSIDE A CLASSROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 23, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "I have a dream to get better, to be better, always. I don't want to stay where I am. I don't want to stay in my place. I see where other (Syrian) people are, my friends who stayed in Syria, they are stuck in a place. Maybe she got married, got divorced, maybe she couldn't change anything to her situation but no, I want to change, I don't want to stay where I am. I don't want to keep living in this house, I don't want to accept my circumstances. This hope, that I have the ability to change things.'' VARIOUS OF MICHO DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, 20, AMANI EL MASRI, SAYING: "To the world, be more kind with these people. They really need care. The most important thing that they need is care. This care will push them to continue. To try to achieve what they want. To refugee, work as hard as you can, because no one will ask for you if you don't work on yourself.'' MICHO EXPLAINING CLASSROOM SET UP (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN REFUGEE STUDENT, RAHAF MICHO, SAYING: "The refugee word is not a bad word. (It) is a word or a situation that maybe everyone, anyone could pass in it. Stay strong and take advantage of all opportunity that available to you and never give up and have this hope to always work on yourself to reach what you want.'' MICHO WRITING ON BOARD IN (English): "NEVER GIVE UP".
  • Embargoed: 3rd July 2020 18:08
  • Keywords: Bar Elias Beirut Lebanon United Nations United Nations' refugee agency World Refugee Day conflict hunger and economic upheaval
  • Location: BEIRUT AND BAR ELIAS, LEBANON
  • City: BEIRUT AND BAR ELIAS, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA003CJ1EM2V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: For Syrian refugee Amani el Masri, the best thing that could ever happen to her is a chance at pursuing higher education.
    The 20-year-old from Homs fled with her family and five sisters to Lebanon in 2013 and since then her education has been a series of uphill battles.
    Now, after having finally graduated from high school, she says she feels her dream is both within reach and so distant at the same time.
    The coronavirus lockdown affected her school year in Lebanon, el Masri says her chance at excelling with her grades at the official Baccalaureate exams have disappeared when the country cancelled exams and automatically gave a passing grade average to all students. This meant very few universities will consider her for a scholarship as her grades are likely not reflecting her potential, leaving her likely to miss out on scholarship funding.
    El Masri says she is continuing to study. She enrolled in a university preparation programme funded by the American University of Beirut and Kings College in London among other partners which includes computer programming - a subject that she is hoping to specialise in - if she ever gets the chance.
    She is one of an extremely small percentage of Syrian refugees aged 17 to 24 in Lebanon who have ended up pursuing higher education. El Masri says she does not want to belong to the generation of children who did not get an education because of the devastating war in Syria.
    Forced to flee shelling and airstrikes in the town of Qusair when she was just 13 years old, El Masri had to navigate the complicated options of joining the public education system in Lebanon that include the need for certified paperwork from Syria that can often be unattainable, on top of language restrictions due to students in Syria studying primarily in Arabic while the system in Lebanon is most commonly bilingual.
    Given her age, El Masri is already a few years behind schedule due to bureaucratic hurdles, but says she would tell other refugees to keep trying.
    For El Masri it might not be clear yet if she will get to experience life at university, but for fellow refugee Rahaf Micho, 23, the dream is a reality.
    Micho and her family first arrived in 2012 from Aleppo. She studied for the final Baccalaureate and sat it three times for three different entities: the Syrian state's official programme, the opposition Syrian National Council's programme and the Lebanese programme, passing all three.
    Her main major is Business Management at the private Saint Joseph University, one of Lebanon's prestigious universities, while also pursuing an English degree at the state Lebanese University.
    Though she says her dream is to move on to a Masters degree abroad, she may end up going back to Aleppo, where her father owns a bag shop at a popular market before losing it all due to the war. He now runs a tailor shop in Bar Elias.
    But Micho is content. She and her family can finally glimpse some hope for a better future. Whether or not that future belongs back in Syria, remains unknown.
    (Production: Ayat Basma, Issam Abdallah, Imad Creidi)
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