Eager to Learn
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Eager to Learn
A few months ago, I was asked to write a story about a refugee child who touched my heart.
It was hard to decide which one. Every child I've met since working for UNHCR has moved me – the sadness, the fatigue, the anger, but then the resilience, the shy smiles and the strength. Every child I meet has a story to tell. But something told me I really had to share Sharifa's story.
Sharifa is a 12-year-old refugee child from Syria. Like many others, she used to live in a beautiful house in Syria, and now she lives in a makeshift tent.
She had just arrived from work, dirty and exhausted, when I first met her. She worked in the fields, collecting potatoes from 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. I asked her what she misses most in Syria, and her eyes lit up when she told me "My English book."
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Sharifa told me all about how much she misses school and how she longs to go back. Schools were full in the village she lives in in Lebanon; there was just no more capacity. I explained the process to Sharifa and her parents. I encouraged them to keep on trying, and to enrol her in the coming school year.
She came running to me and told me, "I did it, I did it! I finally went to school."
That was last June. In the first week of October I visited the settlement again. It was the first week of school, but I couldn't find Sharifa. I said to myself, that's it. She's at work, missing out on another year of education.
But just as I was about to leave, I saw a school bus arrive, and there she was. School uniform, bag, books – she had it all. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of the happiest moments in my life. She came running to me and told me, "I did it, I did it! I finally went to school."