“Today, students realize that education is the only weapon a person should use to take control and many of them are continuing their education. I consider this as an achievement for myself during my life here as a refugee.”

My name is Mohamed Khalid Al Deiri, 25, from Deraa, Syria. I currently live at the Zaatari camp. Before I moved to Jordan I was in my third year studying education at the university of Damascus – Deraa branch.

In 2013, when I came to Zaatari camp, the first thing of which I thought was how to help the children in the camp. I started volunteering via the Syrian Youth Committee. We built a library. It was the first public library at the camp.

My ambitions and ideas were revived. I started thinking of resuming my studies.  First, I received a DAFI scholarship and finished my bachelor at Al-Beit University. I was the first Syrian living in Zaatari to graduate from a Jordanian university. I became a role model to the young people in the camp and outside. 

Now I am studding for a master’s degree via HOPES; specializing in public curriculums at the College of Education. My father passed away in 2014. His will before he died was: “continue your education”. This was his message to me. I don’t want to stop at the master’s degree. God willing, I will continue for a PhD and to become a professor."

The HOPES project provides students from Syria and host communities with access to further and higher education in neighbouring countries. It is funded by the EU Trust Fund and implemented by DAAD, Campus France, Nuffic and the British Council.