Syrian Students Search for the Mexican Dream with Habesha Project Ann-Marie Weaver - NBC News
go to original August 26, 2017

'My Heart is All Mexican:' Syrians Find Land of Opportunity in Mexico (NBC News)

Jackdar Mohammed, originally from Damascus, Syria, moved to Mexico earlier this year with the help of the Habesha Project, a small, locally-based NGO. Since 2015, the organization has been working with 10 Syrians whose studies were interrupted by the civil war, giving them a chance to enrol in top Mexican universities and start a new life.

Things have come a long way since the project’s conception in a refugee camp in northern Iraq. Adrián Meléndez, a Mexican aid worker, had spent several years working in similar camps throughout the Middle East and observed that they were brimming with talented young Syrians with untapped potential. Among these was was Mohammed.

Meléndez first recruited Mohammed to work alongside him as an assistant in the camp, then informed him of his plans.

“I said, ‘I’m launching this project, give me some time, I will come back and I will make sure that you get to Mexico and you go to university,’” says Meléndez. “And for me it was very personal because he was left behind but I wanted to keep my promise to him.”

It was not until three years later that Meléndez was able to fulfill that promise. In the meantime, Mohammed faced the agonizing decision of whether to wait or join his family on a harrowing journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. He decided to wait in Iraq, clinging to the dream of starting again.

However, being accepted by the Habesha Project was just the first hurdle.

Read the rest at NBC News

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