Bios

My name is Amal and I am married and I have two children. I used to live a safe and comfortable life in Syria with my husband and children. I used to work as a teacher until the war began, so then we had to move to Lebanon to escape the war, leaving our home and everything we owned behind. We moved to Lebanon to live and start our lives from scratch because we had nothing there. We rented a house and then my husband started working in construction for a year. After that, he had to return to Syria and never came back. He left us in 2013 and we no longer heard anything from him. But the Lord opened the door for me to work in an international school under the cover of the church.

Visitors came from all countries of the world to see the students because they were refugee students from Syria. Most of them had a difficult life and were living in harsh conditions, so they often cried and felt lonely and depressed. This is how I raised my children by myself and registered them in private schools. For safety reasons, we used to leave the house together and come home together and I was lucky to take holidays together with my kids because I was a teacher and I had weekends, holidays and summer vacations free. It was important that my children never stayed home alone. If one of my children fell ill, the other was also forced to stay home because I couldn’t take any sick days. I worked hard and there were many harsh and difficult circumstances that I went through, but God always gave me strength and despite everything I loved my work. I loved the school and my students and I had friends and family in the church.

But I had to leave all this because there was no future there for my children. This country does not give citizenship and the right to work or go to university for children of refugees. So I searched for a safe homeland and applied for asylum in Canada. All my students cried when I was saying goodbye to them, and I had to start from zero again when I came to Canada in 2019. Life was difficult because of a new culture, new language, unknown people, new technologies, and of course difficult Canadian weather. I tried to find sponsors for my sister, who resides in Lebanon, but I was not lucky. Now, three years have passed and we are now in the fourth year, so I feel better and more accustomed to the culture of the country and to learning the language. I have a part-time job and my life has become easier. I hope the future will be even better and brighter for me and my children.