Saleh’s Story, Algeria
Photo by UNHCR/D. Al Achi/2014.
I was born in 1984 in Laayoune camp. I completed my primary education in the Sahrawi refugee camps. Then I went on to complete my secondary education in Libya and my college degree in English literature in Algiers. If there is one thing I would like to do, it is to make myself useful to my people and my society. For one year, I worked as a teacher in Laayoune camp, receiving an incentive of USD 40 a month. What can I do with this? I spend it in less than a week. It is far from sufficient to help me and my family. So I went looking for something else.
There are many challenges in the camps. There is a need for a substantial change. After 39 years of existence, we are tired and we see few opportunities for self-sufficiency and self-development. People have diplomas but no jobs. There is no real business activity in the camp, all is artificial and non-sustainable. Some young fellows opt for more radical options and we need to prevent this from happening. I volunteered to work in a refugee centre in Berlin in 2012. I was teaching languages to Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers as I master German and Arabic on top of English, Spanish and Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect widely spoken in Western Sahara and Mauritania. This was a very important experience for me. Later on, I applied for a Masters of European studies at Frankfurt’s University, and I was accepted. I will be leaving soon.
I was able to secure my higher education in order to have better options for my future. But not everybody in the camps has this chance. We represent 10 per cent and should be the leading force to lift the rest up. I will go back better equipped to help my community grow stronger.
