From Syria, Daraa; seeking Undergraduate degree in Software Engineering and is enrolled at Zarqa University.
My name is Alaa. I have lived in AL-Zaatari Refugee Camp since 2013. My father is a history teacher and my parents have been supportive of my education. I am the eldest of three sisters and one brother. Heavy fighting in and around my city forced us out of Daraa to a country we only knew by name.
I graduated high school in 2020 and I dream of becoming a software engineer. When we arrived in the camp, the girl next door suffered from a learning disability. She could not attend school as we did and required special attention. She has been on my mind since. I wanted to be of help to children like her.
New technology is helping integrate persons with disabilities. Saed Zaidat, a Palestinian programmer, developed a program to help persons with mobility impairment use a computer to communicate by moving their eyes. He became my role model. I aspire to make as big a difference in the lives of others as the difference he made.
While I’m big on dreams, I am short on financial means. I wasn’t able to attend college immediately after finishing high school.
I made for the lost time by volunteering.
I learned to stand up for women’s rights including their right to education, and to life in dignity free from violence and abuse.
Living in a refugee camp is the hardest challenge I had to go through in my life. With your help, I hope to be able to receive an education that would open the doors wide to a better future outside a refugee camp – even if it were virtually. This will sure change my life and the lives of those around me.
Why Would Donors Fund You?
I wish we had virtual schools during our displacement journey. Consequently, I’m motivated to create easy-to-use online learning websites for refugee children.
I also aspire to develop educational content for students with special needs. Applications that I intend to create are self-paced; everyone can take as little or as much time to complete their lessons from their familiar environments.
How Do You Plan to Payback?
As one of 80 million people who are displaced due to war and conflict, I’m inspired to spare refugees the sorrow and trauma I went through.
I plan to create training programs and coding boot camps for refugee children to enable them to work online from anywhere in the world to make a living. I will also convince big tech companies to donate computers to refugee camps based on my vision to create online learning programs for people in refugee camps and war zones with no access to official education.
Volunteer Work/Social Capital
volunteered with UNICEF, ACTED and Save The Children organizations in AL-Zaatari Refugee Camp on the following topics:
• Dangers of child marriage
• Violence against women
• Saving water
• Personal hygiene
What Have You Done to Improve Yourself? Awards and Achievements
1. Successfully completed A1 and A2 English language levels from the Norwegian Center
2. Attained Life Skills Certificate from the Youth Empowerment Center
3. Received training in computer skills from the Youth Empowerment Center
4. Completing an online TOEFL course
I have obtained International Business Administration Certificate from NRC
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