The clear skies, blazing sun, and 40 something degree temperatures begin to mark the first days of summer in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. Nasser places a cold cup of water on his desk, turns the computer on and pulls out papers from his small bag.
Losing our youth
After a three hour outreach session walking between white shelters that stretch over 15 kilometres of land and host more than 51,000 Syrian refugees, the 21-year-old is glad to be back behind his desk.
He will enter the information of the children he met during today’s session. These children need to register at the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Learning Centre to catch up on the years of school they missed during the conflict in Syria and for some during their displacement in Jordan.
Although tired, Nasser is happy to help children get back to school.
“We are losing our youth, let’s not let the same thing happen to our children,” he says.
The young Syrian has been living in the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan for almost two years.
Fled from Homs
Back in 2014, Nasser had finished his high school diploma, and it was time for him to apply to university. He was planning to study physics, until one day his parents told him to pack a bag to leave Homs, a city in western Syria. It was too dangerous to stay.
“Never in my life had I imagined or thought that I would have to leave my home and move to live in a shelter,” says Nasser, recalling the day he and his parents and nine brothers and sisters arrived at the Jordanian borders, and finally to the camp they now call home.
“We thought we would be here for a month or two”.
Feels responsible
Five years into the crisis, he felt that he had to move on and do something useful with his time in the camp. Being the eldest among his siblings, he feels responsible.
He came to this opportunity after completing after completing the three-month International Computer Driving License (ICDL) course at the NRC Youth Skills Training Centre.
The ICDL programme is the first internationally accredited certificate in the camp. It offers a wide range of modules including Computer Essentials, Word Processing and IT Security and NRC’s centre provides the Base and Standard Modules.
Today Nasser works through an incentive-based volunteering scheme as an “ambassador of the community” at the NRC Learning Centre. His role is to link between the centre, its students, parents, and teachers.
The determined young man works to spread awareness in the refugee community about the importance of education for children, and supports the centre with data entry and analysis of attendance rates. He also creates surveys using different Microsoft Office tools.
Opens future doors
Nasser did not know how to use a computer before, and hearing about the three-month IT course that the NRC provides got him excited to learn.
“This certificate opens doors to other opportunities, if not in the camp, in the future when we return to Syria”, he says.
Displacement and refugee status has particular impacts on youth as it comes at a time of personal development, formation of identity and change.
For Nasser, it was not easy to cope with living in a place extremely different from home and far away from family and friends. Yet, he is one out of many Syrian refugee youth who have untapped potential and remain persistent to learn and make a better future for themselves and their families.
More confident
The young Syrian expresses how his personality and outlook towards the future changed when he graduated from the course six months ago.
“I am more confident about my skills, I made new friends and I believe that this can make a positive change in my life, it already did, he says, eager to continue learning.
“I’m waiting for the NRC to introduce the Advanced Module so I can register in the course.”
BACKGROUND
- Some 120,000 Syrian refugees are youth aged between 15 to 24 years (19% of the total registered refugee population).
- Many were not able to finish their high school or university degrees, others did not have the chance to begin their higher education programmes.
- NRC’s ICDL programme is the first internationally accredited certificate in the camp.
- The programme offers a wide range of modules, including Computer Essentials, Word Processing and IT security. NRC’s centre provides the Base and Standard Modules.
- The centre, which is supported by UNICEF and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provides a place where Syrian youth can find opportunities to continue their education and be active participants in their communities.
- This month, the NRC Youth Programme across the three refugee camps in Jordan, will graduate its 1000th holder of the ICDL certificate.
