“I made an oath to myself,” Ensaf said, “that I will begin a new step to build a future for me and the generation that comes after me.” Oath-making is serious business. When ISIS controlled Mosul, the city was a prison for women who didn’t pledge allegiance to the group. Morality...
When ISIS took Ekhlas’s hometown, it was an utterly ordinary day. Her children were watching cartoons on TV and she had a doctor’s appointment to get ready for. Then she stepped outside her home and normality vanished. “The streets were empty,” she remembers. “It was completely silent. If you had...
When he was younger, Sulaiman dreamt of being a geologist. He was fascinated by the landscape of Syria. Captivated by the idea of working in nature, outside the confines of an office. For a while, he was living out his dream, studying geology near his hometown in northern Syria. Then...
Rand recalls her younger self saying, “I will never work in finance. I hate dealing with money.” Today, Rand is the Finance and Administrative Coordinator at a tech hub in Mosul, Iraq, that focuses on developing entrepreneurship, innovation, and tech-based jobs. Her goal is to earn a Master of...
When Sufyan was in college, he wanted to get a job. His IT skills were good, but he wasn’t receiving offers. Frustrated, he heard about our program to teach the technical and interpersonal skills necessary to flourish in today’s job market, from one of his friends. Intrigued, he decided...
Hassan has big dreams. Like his hero Elon Musk, Hassan wants to become a successful entrepreneur. His plan is to harvest the power of technology to help feed his community and his country, Lebanon, and he’s determined to do this before he’s 30. Hassan’s given himself ten years. Lebanon is...
“We’ve had people coming into the program, especially women, come in and say ‘I do this for my daughter. I do this for my son, so I can teach them something that I know they would not get from school.’ And that’s encouraging because she’s not the only generation...
Siryi is a proud mom to 2 lovely girls, and even though the arrival of the oldest put a hold on her studies (she was studying her undergrad), there is no denying how much they are loved by both their parents. While they were living in Honduras, Siryi sold...
Freelance Graphic Designer As a young returnee, Hiwa was a very active person with a lot of eagerness to learn and for adventure. He believes that without consistency, hard work, and failure, success is not possible.
Is an education worth your life? Najwa thinks so. When civil war engulfed her city in northern Syria, her siblings fled with their families, but Najwa chose to remain at home, so she could attend university and get her degree in French. Global conversation about displaced people tends to focus on...
