Text size | | |
Also available in French

UNHCR helps Iraqi students achieve university dreams

News Stories, 22 January 2009

Maryam at study in the family apartment in a Damascus suburb.

DAMASCUS, Syria, January 22 (UNHCR) – Eighteen-year-old Maryam* is living her dream as she studies a legal textbook at the back of her family's rented apartment overlooking wasteland in a depressing Damascus suburb.

When the Iraqi refugee arrived here in August 2005, she thought her plans to study law at university had disappeared forever. The then teenager came to Syria from Baghdad with her mother, brother and sister to join their father, who had fled the Iraqi capital a year earlier after receiving death threats.

With almost no savings and reliant on the UN refugee agency for assistance, they could not afford to spend money on higher education. "My daughter cried a lot because she felt all her dreams were falling apart," recalls her mother, Fatima.*

At a community centre in the suburb of Jaramana last September, her mother spotted an announcement about a UNHCR project to send the children of needy Iraqi refugees to university for free. The programme was launched last November with 154 Iraqi refugees starting degree courses at universities in the cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Deir Ezzor and Lattakia under an agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education.

Maryam was among those who applied and she was accepted to study law at Damascus University. She is now in her first year of a four-year course and hopes one day to return to Iraq and help rebuild the country as a lawyer. "It is the responsibility of my generation to rebuild Iraq and that's why we should learn and pursue our education," she says.

Her success is also a victory for Maryam's family, especially Fatima, who knows how important education is. "I always told my children education is all that matters," she says, adding: "I prayed to God to find us a way out with Maryam's university studies – and here we are!"

While university is almost free for Syrians, Iraqi refugees have to pay enrolment fees, which can run to several thousand dollars in some faculties. They also have to pay for text books.

But education is also an important issue for UNHCR, which runs an internet-based campaign, ninemillion.org, aimed at ensuring that all refugee children have access to education. In Syria, the UN refugee agency and UNICEF launched a separate programme in 2007 to get tens of thousands of Iraqi children back into school.

Mohammed* is also on the university programme, but his goals are a world away from those of Maryam. A media and communications student at Damascus University, he dreams of becoming a famous TV anchorman.

He certainly has some stories to tell – his own. In 2006, he was kidnapped while on his way home from school in Baghdad. Mohammed was beaten during a week-long captivity, which ended when his parents paid a US$40,000 ransom. Four months later the family fled to Damascus.

But this traumatic experience did not dampen his spirit and determination. Mohammed was an A-grade student at secondary school and now shrugs off his abduction. "Many Iraqis went through similar experiences," the outgoing and confident young man says. "If everyone gets intimidated and sits sadly in a corner, who is going to rebuild Iraq?"

Fellow Damascus University student Reem has good reason to feel intimidated. "I lived the nightmare of losing my arm and becoming disabled and unable to write," explains the 20-year-old, who was injured during an explosion in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 2006.

But, like Mohammed, she also put the ordeal behind her and pursued her ambition of tertiary education. The family came to Syria shortly after and Reem entered high school, where she excelled. She applied to the UNHCR programme and was one of a startling 109 women to be offered places.

"Now I am happy. I feel I have started the first step towards not only my future, but also [the future of] my homeland, Iraq," Reem says with a big smile.

* Names changed for protection reasons

By Salwa Salti in Damascus, Syria

Most Popular Now
Documents
Sections

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

Browse by country

UNHCR country pages

UNHCR Iraq Fact Sheet

Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) residents and the determination of their refugee status claims

Education

Education is vital in restoring hope and dignity to young people driven from their homes.

DAFI Scholarships

The German-funded Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative provides scholarships for refugees to study in higher education institutes in many countries.

UNHCR Syria Fact Sheet

Published November 2011

Chad: Education in Exile

UNHCR joins forces with the Ministry of Education and NGO partners to improve education for Sudanese refugees in Chad.

The ongoing violence in Sudan's western Darfur region has uprooted two million Sudanese inside the country and driven some 230,000 more over the border into 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad.

Although enrolment in the camp schools in Chad is high, attendance is inconsistent. A shortage of qualified teachers and lack of school supplies and furniture make it difficult to keep schools running. In addition, many children are overwhelmed by household chores, while others leave school to work for local Chadian families. Girls' attendance is less regular, especially after marriage, which usually occurs by the age of 12 or 13. For boys and young men, attending school decreases the possibility of recruitment by various armed groups operating in the area.

UNHCR and its partners continue to provide training and salaries for teachers in all 12 refugee camps, ensuring a quality education for refugee children. NGO partners maintain schools and supply uniforms to needy students. And UNICEF is providing books, note pads and stationary. In August 2007 UNHCR, UNICEF and Chad's Ministry of Education joined forces to access and improve the state of education for Sudanese uprooted by conflict in Darfur.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Chad: Education in Exile

Education for Displaced Colombians

UNHCR works with the government of Colombia to address the needs of children displaced by violence.

Two million people are listed on Colombia's National Register for Displaced People. About half of them are under the age of 18, and, according to the Ministry of Education, only half of these are enrolled in school.

Even before displacement, Colombian children attending school in high-risk areas face danger from land mines, attacks by armed groups and forced recruitment outside of schools. Once displaced, children often lose an entire academic year. In addition, the trauma of losing one's home and witnessing extreme violence often remain unaddressed, affecting the child's potential to learn. Increased poverty brought on by displacement usually means that children must work to help support the family, making school impossible.

UNHCR supports the government's response to the educational crisis of displaced children, which includes local interventions in high-risk areas, rebuilding damaged schools, providing school supplies and supporting local teachers' organizations. UNHCR consults with the Ministry of Education to ensure the needs of displaced children are known and planned for. It also focuses on the educational needs of ethnic minorities such as the Afro-Colombians and indigenous people.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Education for Displaced Colombians

Crisis in Iraq: Displacement

UNHCR and its partners estimate that out of a total population of 26 million, some 1.9 million Iraqis are currently displaced internally and more than 2 million others have fled to nearby countries. While many people were displaced before 2003, increasing numbers of Iraqis are now fleeing escalating sectarian, ethnic and general violence. Since January 2006, UNHCR estimates that more than 800,000 Iraqis have been uprooted and that 40,000 to 50,000 continue to flee their homes every month. UNHCR anticipates there will be approximately 2.3 million internally displaced people within Iraq by the end of 2007. The refugee agency and its partners have provided emergency assistance, shelter and legal aid to displaced Iraqis where security has allowed.

In January 2007, UNHCR launched an initial appeal for US$60 million to fund its Iraq programme. Despite security issues for humanitarian workers inside the country, UNHCR and partners hope to continue helping up to 250,000 of the most vulnerable internally displaced Iraqis and their host communities

Posted on 12 June 2007