At refugee school, hunger for knowledge is the lasting lesson

by By Sina Vahedi

Published Aug. 24, 2016, 10:38 a.m. ET

Sina Vahedi is a student of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He was born and raised in India to Iranian parents who were refugees from the 1979 Iranian revolution. Now a research fellow at Johns Hopkins working on Ebola eye disease, Vahedi traveled to Jordan in April of 2016 as part of his medical school experience.

We visited one of the schools at the Za'atari refugee camp. In true Jordanian custom, we were received by the headmistress and some of the teachers and had coffee together. The headmistress told us about the problems the students face, including limited resources such as supplies and electricity (the residents have electricity from 5 p.m. to midnight). The girls there faced the additional challenge of having to marry early and the expectation that they would stay at home and take care of the family once they were married.

We joined a class of tenth grade girls for one of their lessons. I have never seen a group of teenagers more enthusiastic to learn and participate. Almost every hand would shoot up to answer a question or volunteer to read. The lesson that day was about greenhouse gases and global warming. The students were coming up with concrete ideas of how they could help reduce its effect on the planet.

The irony didn't fail to strike me. Here we were, three Americans from a country that is one of the top five per-capita emitters of greenhouse gasses, and one of the few where a large percentage of elected leaders believe that global warming is not due to human activity. We all felt ashamed that day, sitting with these refugees who had so little and were still planning on making the world a better place by recycling more and using less electricity.

We asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. We had future teachers, doctors, nurses, housewives, politicians and astronauts. I realized that day that this was the spirit of the refugees in the camp. They were people in a difficult place who wanted to work hard and utilize every opportunity to improve their situation, to rebuild their country, and to help solve global problems.

Despite this enthusiasm and hunger for knowledge, only a small percentage of students will have access to higher education. This percentage is even lower for the girls, many of whom will soon marry and start taking care of their families.

The best assistance we can provide is to help them realize their dreams of getting an education and acquiring the skills they would need to rebuild Syria. It could be a longer commitment with slower results, and probably generate fewer headlines than opening a new clinic or providing free shoes and clothing, but nurturing their dreams and enthusiasm could create opportunities for the development of these human resources.

The refugees are not passively waiting for the situation to improve. They are actively working to preserve their culture and develop their skills so that when the Syrian War is over they can return and rebuild.

This is the third article in a series of three that details the medical students' experience in a Jordanian refugee camp.