Supporting education

Meet Mariam. She's a Syrian refugee who fled her home when the war started; her 10 siblings were separated in the process - five stayed in Syria, and she, her parents and four siblings have been living in a caravan in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan for the past eight years. The 'refugee crisis' is made up of individual people, like Mariam, each with a story. While the difficult facts of her life tell part of her story, what I'd really like you to know about her is what I've gotten to know the past few months as I've been mentoring her, over zoom, through EdSeed and Project Turquoise. She is smart, resilient, hard working, and fiercely determined. She's at the top of her class and there's no doubt that she will succeed in graduating from college - the first of her siblings to do so - and achieve her dream of becoming a pharmacist - so she can help her mom, a diabetic, and others. When I asked her what keeps her going - despite hardships we can't imagine, not least of which was reading her chemistry textbook off her phone, she said: "We are all human and we are all created equal. Although some may be better off in life, they have computers, cars, and homes, in the final analysis, we're all human beings, we all have a brain, and we should not put that to waste. #humankindbysalma