Lea Abu Naoum is 18 years old and from Lebanon. She lives in the village Raet, in the Bekaa valley.     "When I was a child, in the first grade, I was going to a school called Hadanet Al-Tifl in Zahle. It was a boarding school. I used to go there on Monday morning and come back home on Friday noon. When I was at the second grade at school, my father passed away. It was on a Friday, when I was supposed to go back home. I came back home and I didn’t find him.

I always dreamt of becoming a doctor, not to become rich, but I felt that the world needs people who help humanity. I started my first year at the science college, which is important for me to go through the medicine competition. I knew that my financial situation might not help me because the journey of medicine is long."

"The HOPES project will help me go on not with my studies not only this year and the next year but I will also benefit from it for the fourth and the fifth years. HOPES enables me to take on this journey."

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.