Syrian Refuge Personal Statement

A somber April breeze lifted the damp hair at his temples and ruffled the hem of my tattered blanket, as the bus jolted over the pothole-strewn prison road and finally arrived at the correctional institution, where A.R., my child, was to meet his incarcerated father for the first time in 7 years. My stomach fluttering and my hands quivering conspicuously more than A.R., I began to question the fervor that led me here, into this desolate facility housing prisoners who, as the prison guard describes, “committed the worst felonies possible, from murder to trafficking to everything in between”. My eyes honed on the horde of men in dark uniforms parading back and forth, impatiently, as they took turns peering through the sole window in the once vacant room. The door separating my child and his father stood approximately nine feet high, a brooding, grey mass of steel beams and mesh. There was no beauty in the design-rather it was bleak and uninviting. Such qualms were forgotten as the immense mesh locked behind us, and …show more content…
From organizing a lifelong Syrian Refugee-Assistance program for all the refugee families in the Miami-Homestead area, to establishing monthly nutritional cooking classes for girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking and prostitution, I valued generating community-based approaches to recognizing and addressing the physical and mental health concerns of local populations. As a Patient Advocate for victims of rape, I undoubtedly experienced the significance of empathy by ensuring victims of sexual assault felt safe, empowered, and had access to care services. Often, I found they just wanted me to listen or in the case of children, simply to play with them, which was gratifying in