AMMAN — Three Syrian students in Marka have
recently been awarded two-week summer scholarships in the UK through
Summer Boarding Courses, the
country’s leading multicampus summer school program. The students — Heba
Al-Horani, 14, Fatima Al-Abood, 13, and Amal Kanaan, 13 — have not left Jordan
since fleeing war in Syria nearly a decade ago, making it their first-ever trip
overseas.
اضافة اعلان
The students are attendees of
Squash Dreamers in Amman, a
US-registered NGO dedicated to empowering Syrian refugee and underprivileged
Jordanian girls through sports, education, and pastoral care. Three times a
week, the students would learn English, how to play squash, and receive
one-on-one support from the organization’s staff for any schoolwork.
Daisy Hill, the executive director of Squash
Dreamers, helped the students submit the scholarship applications, emphasizing
that they were determined to access challenging educational opportunities and
shape their future for the better.
A strained school systemThe girls regularly attend school in the
morning or the afternoon for two to five hours a day, making it difficult for
them to attain a thorough education. Abood, who will be studying English at
Oxford Brookes University’s Headington Campus, explained, “I don’t like the
teachers in my school. They’re so, so bad.”
Kanaan, who is also studying English at Oxford
Brookes, added, “I respect my teachers, but they are always screaming, and I
don’t really learn a lot because of that.”
Kanaan said that money was the biggest
obstacle for girls like her in accessing high quality education. “Because we’re
Syrian, we didn’t come here with enough money. We get loans from the bank or
friends, but you have to have a lot of money. You have to work so hard to get
the money.”
“Life in Jordan is so hard,” she said.
Roughly 80 percent of Jordan’s Syrian refugee
population fall below the country’s poverty line, with around 60 percent of
Syrian families living in extreme poverty.
Only
15 to 21 percent of eligible Syrian students are enrolled in secondary school.
As a result, many girls in their communities leave education behind and often
marry very young, with the rate of marriage for Syrian refugee girls under 18
having risen from 13 percent to 36 percent over the last 10 years.
Bureaucratic barriers
Horani — who is planning to study art, design,
and English at
Rochester Independent College — views bureaucracy as one of the biggest problems for
Syrians seeking an education. She explained, “You have to have tons of papers
to register, and many people won’t be nice to you. The first time I came to
school here, there was a lot of discrimination, but it’s better now.”
Despite receiving scholarships to England,
there is still no guarantee that the Syrian government will provide the
students with Syrian passports to permit travelling overseas. It would cost
$825 for the girls to receive passports in time to pursue their scholarships,
which is more than what their families make in months.
The window at the Syrian Embassy in Amman that
deals with passport applications is manned by one employee and closes after
12pm.
Syrian refugees in Jordan must provide
extensive documentation, with people from all over Jordan — including the three
students and their parents — waiting by the embassy early in the morning to
secure their place.
After waiting by the window since 6am, the
girls were initially turned away by the embassy for not having physically
processed documentation from Damascus or any family living in Syria. The girls
are currently waiting on an exit and re-entry document that would permit them
to legally exit and return to Jordan as refugees.
Dreams of flight
Horani said that the taxing passport application
process only elevates the anticipation of leaving Jordan for the first time.
She is also excited to fly overseas and improve her art skills, adding, “There
have been many difficult things in my life, but art has always made them
better.”
Kanaan is also eager to fly overseas, saying,
“I didn’t see the sea in so long, but I love the sea.” Abood recounted that she
“always dreamed to travel” and is “excited to be somewhere that people know
another language, to see other people — new people.”
The girls also expressed anxiety and fear over
travelling abroad, with Horani admitting, “It’s scary.”
Growing optimism
Despite their fears, the students remain
optimistic that the scholarship will help improve their chances to attend
university in Jordan, where nearly all higher education courses are taught in
English. Abood said, “I want to study psychology because I want to help girls
and boys like me in Syria, Jordan, and England.”
She also expressed her desire to give every
girl in Jordan a chance to travel and study abroad, adding, “I hope the girls
at Squash Dreamers, my friends, and any girl here gets to travel, and to tell
them that if they want to go to England too, or if they have a dream, you can
do it.”
Horani added, “I hope for everyone in the
world that they will get an opportunity like this.”
Kanaan hopes to become a translator and
doctor, but said that she is excited for the bragging rights of travelling
abroad regardless. “If anyone in the future asks me, ‘Did you ever travel or
see anything in the world,’ I can say yes, I went to Britain and I saw the sea
and Big Ben,” she said.
Contingent on proper documentation, visas, and
passports, Horani is set to travel to the UK on July 22, 2023 with Abood and
Kanaan following on August 13.
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