Born with cerebral palsy, the 16-year-old has spent her life in a wheelchair. She had little formal education in Syria but taught herself English by watching US soap operas. In 2014 her home town of Kobane was at the centre of fierce fighting between Isis militants and US-backed Kurdish forces, forcing her family to flee across the border into Turkey.
–
Accompanied by her older sister Nisreen, she’d spent the previous weeks travelling overland from the Turkish/Syrian border to the coastal town of Bodrum, where they’d paid smugglers to take them on a dangerously overcrowded dinghy to the Greek island of Lesbos.
–
From there it had been a 14-hour ferry ride to Piraeus on the Greek mainland, followed by a bus journey across Macedonia to the Serbian/Hungarian border. It was a grueling trek that would have been daunting for even the fittest and most able-bodied, and she still had hundreds of miles to go, but her courage won over everyone who watched the bulletin, including Keane, a BBC reporter who was visibly moved by her cheerful refusal to see herself as a victim. “You should fight to get what you want in this world,” she told him, “so yes, it’s a journey for a new life.”
–
It’s this positive attitude that Nujeen believes helped her face the long journey to Europe. How did she manage to stay so upbeat in the face of so many setbacks? “I thought of it as something that I’m living through now but that will pass. I thought of everything as a big adventure,” she says.
–
–
*Source: Joanne O’Connor | www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/20/nujeen-mustafa-interview-syrian-refugee
"I attended your story telling course some time back. And I've enjoyed keeping up my knowledge with your blog. You may not have realised however, that the Whole of Government is implementing Internet Seperation. Hence I'm not able to access the links to read your articles. Could I suggest including a QR code in your emails so that I can use my mobile to scan it and gain immediate access to the article? It would be most helpful"
© Copyright 2013 - 2024 Narrative Pte Ltd