After years of hardship, 17-year-old Nour looks ahead with optimism thanks to better education opportunities.
The children of Syria who have watched years of crisis in full have faced a great deal of hardship and terrible memories. Many young people experienced changes in living situations and were deprived of education as a result of harsh economic conditions.
Nour, a 17-year-old girl from Darayya, Rural Damascus, shares some of the difficulties she was subjected to. She says, “After returning to Darayaa with my family, my father died, leaving me, my mother, and my sister without a breadwinner. My father’s passing caused me to experience psychological trauma. It was so harsh, I failed seventh grade.”
Nour goes on to say, “When I failed, I didn’t find anyone to support or console me. On the other hand, everyone began blaming me and calling me a failure. I just wanted support from someone other than my mother. Unfortunately, the effects of what I was exposed to forced me to drop out of school and stay at home. I accepted the idea of failure.”
“But my mother encouraged me to try again for the ninth-grade certificate. Indeed, I returned to school with the expectation that I would fail. Sadly, everyone around us kept telling me I was going to fail, so my self-esteem crashed. I was really shy and quiet, with no friends at school.”
When asked how she registered for the ADRA program, Nour said that ADRA visited the school to talk about the remedial class program.
“Then, I went to my mother and told her that I wanted to enroll in remedial classes because I needed a chance to better my educational level. Once I started attending, I began to feel that my education had improved, and my mother observed it as well. I had hoped for success in the ninth grade, but I was not expecting such a positive improvement!” Nour, the shy young girl who did not want to take part in the lessons, now stands at the blackboard and teaches her classmates. She even had a chance to teach an entire mathematics lesson, which was truly a memorable experience.
Nour ends by thanking ADRA for the program: “If it hadn’t existed, I’d have continued being the shy, introverted girl with a lack of self-confidence. Today, I can stand up and face the entire world while chasing my passion. Thank you, ADRA, for helping us in accomplishing our goals.”
