Farooq Farooq

My parents, brother and I fled Iraq and stayed in Egypt for seven years before coming here in 2018. It was always the search for a safe home, which we finally secured in this country. When I enrolled as a grade nine student in high school, I was mistreated by a teacher. After he found out that I had little knowledge of the English language and needed help, he would either ignore or scream whenever I approached him with a question. It impacted me so much that I even thought of dropping out. When I told my mom about the situation at school, she contacted Eman Hasan, the school settlement counsellor at CCSYR. Ms. Hasan immediately visited my high school. She spoke with the teacher and ensured I was treated respectfully. For a newcomer kid struggling with the language barrier and lack of familiarity with the school system, accessing simple things at school becomes difficult. And, here, she even helped me get a locker. She speaks Arabic and is from Iraq, making it easier for her to understand my predicament. She was even the first to point out the need to improve my English language score. Thanks to her motivation, I continued studying and successfully graduated high school. I’m about to start the post-secondary program this fall, and she has become my second mom with time!