Life Lessons

In Episode 4 of Betweem Lives, Nisreen still remembers her school days in Syria, but is determined to make the best of the education you’re helping to provide.

Before the war, we used to go out freely and go to school. But after the war broke out, we stopped going out and could not study anymore. Our future goals were shattered.

In Syria there were 45 girls in my classroom. We enjoyed playing in the courtyard, where we would sit under the trees, and we enjoyed studying. We loved our teachers and they loved us too. Now we have no idea what happened to some of the other girls or to the teachers.

“We see that [our mother] struggles but she uses all her strength to take care of us,” says Aya, 16, who wants to be a dentist. Credit ©UNHCR/D.Azia

My favourite was my Arabic teacher, Samia. We were like friends and we joked a lot in the classroom. She was a good teacher, and she made us happy. We wished she’d stay with us all day. I haven’t seen or heard any news about her.

But there is one friend I have seen here. Sulaf and I were best friends since Grade 1. We used to do everything together, but her family left Syria before ours and I did not know what happened to her.

Then one day I saw Sulaf in the market in Za’atari. We were both so happy and now it is the same as before with us.

In the mornings I go to school and my favourite subjects are Maths, Arabic and English. It’s difficult sometimes when the teacher asks a question and it reminds us of something we learned at home in Syria. It makes us think of what we left behind.

Then at 11 I go to the Vocational Training Centre. We do lots of different activities there like medicine, cooking, drawing and photography, but my favourite is journalism.

I have always wanted to be a journalist and I want to report on things happening in reality. I don’t want to make up stories. I wish I was a journalist now, to be able to describe what’s going on in the camp, how people are living here, how their life was before and how they live now.