I came to Canada as a refugee. I used to work as a high school English teacher in Homs, Syria. I was forced to leave my home because of the war and decided to go Jordan with my sister, who was in a wheelchair, and my cat.

We had to travel through the dessert because the solider regime patrols the highway so I paid someone everything I had to take us across the dessert to Jordan. When we arrived at the border, they didn’t allow us to enter. My sister had been wounded through fire and we had to wait for 28 days in the dessert with a few bags filled with our things and two bottles of water. When we finally arrived in Jordan, my sister was rushed to the hospital and passed away 21 days later.

I was reunited with the rest of my family in Jordan but still felt depressed from the loss of my sister. From everything we’d gone through together, I realized that there was a big need to support more wounded people and from my sister’s passing, I knew there would be other people that needed help so I decided to work with refugees and wounded people.

I started working for a small volunteer project called Murhaba, in English it means hello. I worked with teachers and psychologists to help wounded people or refugees and make a connection with them. After that, I went on to work with two non-profit organizations that helped with mental health and psychosocial activities like domestic violence, anger management, and women and child support.