To find joy, and to give back: Mohammed’s story

“When I was in high school in Greece, I was thinking about what I should do, once I realized that my childhood dream of becoming a football player was over for me. I wanted to pursue something that would bring me joy and fulfilment in what I do, but also to lend a hand myself and do something good for humanity.”

Twenty-four-year-old Mohammed, a refugee of Kurdish origin from Iraq, speaks with a confidence unusual for his age about the years that shaped his choices and led him to now study at the Department of Nursing at the Hellenic Mediterranean University in Heraklion, Crete. When he arrived in 2018 as a refugee with his family in Thessaloniki via Evros, he was nearly 17 years old and had left behind his school desk and the path of a strong student, with a deep love for football.

In the Diavata accommodation facility, where he spent his first period in Greece, he immediately began trying to learn Greek. He watched Greek cartoons to get used to the language, enrolled in classes offered by organizations - SolidarityNow and ARSIS - within the site and later in the city centre. He did not hesitate to take three buses from the site to attend lessons in central Thessaloniki. Within a few months, he was able to communicate in Greek, with his vocabulary constantly expanding - to the great surprise of the Refugee Education Coordinator (REC) of the facility, Viktoria Koemtzopoulou, who helped him enroll in a Vocational High School (EPAL).

Thanks to his knowledge of Greek, Mohammed often accompanied other refugees from the site to their medical appointments to assist with interpretation. “I gradually started learning medical terms in Greek. By accompanying others, I saw the work of doctors up close, which is something very important. And that’s how I came to love this profession over time,” he explains, describing how he moved from the dream of football to a passion for medicine.

For a student enrolling for the first time in the Greek school system in the first year of high school, the path to the national university entrance exams was not simple. He himself had strong determination and drive, but he also had the support of his school, the 12th Vocational High School of Thessaloniki, which, as he says, he visits whenever he returns to the city to see the principal and his teachers. He speaks with appreciation and admiration for the teachers who gave him free extra lessons whenever they had gaps in their schedule, and for his literature teacher and his mathematics teacher who supported him remotely so he could sit the exams again.

“I was also a bit lucky, wasn’t I?” he wonders with a smile, speaking about all the teachers who stood by him and provided, as he says, invaluable motivation.

Mohammed is now a third-year nursing student - something he describes as a calling and not just a profession - and he enjoys his clinical training courses. He even likes the process of drawing blood, to the point that he observes people’s hands in the street to see whether they have good veins. At the same time, whenever his schedule allows, he works in a care home for the elderly, as he did while living in Thessaloniki, as he loves being close to people he can care for.

“I don’t know what the conditions will be like or what I will want when I finish nursing, but I think I won’t give up the dream of medicine. I am thinking of taking the entrance exams to move to this school after nursing” says Mohammed, who already has in mind that he would like to specialize in cardiology.

“I am persistent, after all. And my family doesn’t have a doctor yet - I will be the first,” he adds with a laugh.

Victoria Koemtzopoulou, REC at the facility of Daviata, seen with Mohammed outside his family’s restaurant in Thessaloniki.

© Personal archive

For the people who have known Mohammed for a long time, like Viktoria from the Diavata site, they know that when he sets his mind on a goal, it is not easy for him to move away from it. “Not all paths are easy, nor do they all begin from the same starting point. Yet Mohammed has shown that strength, perseverance, patience, and belief in your abilities can lead you even along the most difficult journeys to the finish line. A finish line that, in reality, is at the same time the starting point for the next goal.”

For now, Mohammed is preparing for the exam period, following a strict schedule of classes and studying. In Heraklion, he has made friends and, as he says, loves the people and the values of Crete island, which remain alive. In the summers, he returns to Thessaloniki, sees familiar faces and helps as much as he can in the family business - a restaurant serving Arabic cuisine that his family recently opened.

Speaking fluent Greek has, as he says, played a pivotal role in his life: in earning the respect of others, in his integration, and in the help he can offer to those around him.

Above all, he strongly believes in people’s ability to communicate, to learn, and to understand beyond stereotypes and myths that may be cultivated around refugees in public discourse. “In Arabic, we have a proverb: a person is hostile to what they do not know,” he says reflecting on how fear can create distance from all that we have not had the chance to experience or to truly know up close. And he, for his part, seeks to know as much as he can about the people and the places he meets along his journey.