Zakaria H.
My parents owned a house and a piece of land in Palestine.
Their whole existence was in Palestine. Ten years after their escape to Syria I was born. We, Palestinians in Syria, were very poor at the time. Each summer I had several jobs. I learned how to lay bricks, how to paint and how to grow crops. My salary was destined to sustain my family and to be able to pay for my university studies. For four years I studied English. Later I obtained a master degree in song translation, during this time I lectured at the university of Damascus.
I continued to develop myself and started organising workshops in Amman (Jordan), and Beirut (Lebanon). In those workshops I trained others to become mentors or coaches in the field of human rights, stress management, education and emergency relief. I got a PhD, in my research I focussed on children’s education.
For De Voorkamer, I worked on a magazine with stories of the project’s participants, stories about Syria and stories about the new encounters here in Holland.