Transcriber: Pia M Reviewer: Esra Çakmak
Refugee.
Unfortunately, this is the way most people view us Syrians.
The media has the power to change the views of a whole generation.
It hides many untold stories and shines the light on others.
If you go now, and Google the word Syrians,
this is what you’ll find.
The miserable side of us,
those who immigrated here, fled,
and never know anything about their homes or families.
The people who lack access to simple life essentials;
water, food, electricity and a home.
We never get to see the positive side.
I'm not saying that it's all sunshine and rainbows,
but there is definitely those people who worked hard and proved themselves.
According to the UNICEF, the national school enrolment percentage in Syria
has decreased to 56% from 2010 to 2014.
And this is all due to the harsh conditions,
and school destructions all over the country.
But many people took their children.
I helped them find better opportunities.
Take, for example, Mudlarks Ibrahim,
who won a first place in a mental math competition in Malaysia,
Tareq Hadhad, horrible with his family, his father’s chocolate factory in Canada,
and their business was once presented.
And one of Justin Trudeau’s past speeches.
And finally one of my favorites.
Amr Maskoun who immigrated aged 14 and is now one of
the biggest social media influencers.
I was one of the people who lived in the war for about five years
after the conditions got really bad in Aleppo in 2016, we decided to leave.
We came here to Dubai, a whole other world
where I stood in front of my teachers, not understanding the language or accent.
I felt like I was lost, and I was misunderstood.
My English was quite basic,
and my communication skills were zero.
In a matter of months,
with the help and support of my family, teachers and new friends,
I was able to overcome this obstacle.
And here I am standing here in front of you,
speaking with what I call fluent English.
If my 12 year old self saw me right now, she would be speechless.
She wouldn’t believe the fact that she became that person standing here today,
presenting her country, and making her people proud.
What we see all over the media is not always the real image.
Everyone has their untold story
that has brought them to where they are right now.
What you see when Googling Syrians
is the result of what the war has done to us.
It’s not who we really are.
Living in the war, I’ve always seen a lot of children
walk to school together, play together, enjoy their time together.
But there was also these kids, the ones that you see in the news every day,
who were not fortunate enough to have the life that I or anyone around me had.
There were instead forced to flee their homes, give up their education,
lose their families, live in camps,
and work without enjoying their childhood.
Obviously, most media platforms step in sending their photographers
and taking pictures of this poor children instead of helping them.
This should be stopped.
Using that side of Syrians as a standard is cruel.
Thousands of us are fighting every day to make our country stand back up,
to give our people the normal life again,
and to give our children their childhood that they are losing.
This side should be given more attention.
This is why we should remove all
the filters that are hiding everyone's real story
and learn why people ended up like this.
We’re a nationality known for hardworking and ambitions,
and everyone has a factor that is limiting their ability to become the best they can.
For us, it was war.
War has limited many of our aspirations
and opportunity is what many of our children are lacking.
Giving those children a small opportunity will change their life.
It will be the road to success.
Just like Noor, Ahmad, Tara and me;
a small opportunity gave us a much better life.
And it was our own success.
We should learn how to be more positive and optimistic.
Remove all these stereotypical ideologies
and help each other up instead of letting each other down.
Syrians and many other nationalities prove to the world
that no matter how hard the conditions we’ve been through,
we seize the opportunities that we were given without any excuses.
We need to learn how to be more empathetic.
We need to learn how to provide more opportunities to the unfortunate.
And we need to learn how to see our world without a filter.