Hazem has lived in Frome for eight months. He lives here with his wife Zainab and their two and a half year old son. I am welcomed into their home with a warm hospitality that insists upon feeding me with dried fruit delicacies and a beverage of choice.
Hazem immediately apologises for his English, an unnecessary apology I realise over the course of our conversation. Hazem tells me his story in near perfect English, his fourth language after his mother tongue Arabic, Russian – he studied medicine in Russia) and Turkish the tongue of his adoptive country for four years.
Hazem travels to Trowbridge twice weekly where he studies English, he is very keen to improve his grasp of the language so that he can again return to his career as a Doctor. He is the second Doctor in the family, his father now in his 60’s decided to remain in their native city Aleppo where he continues his work on a voluntary basis. Hazem informs me that he has not seen his Father for over four years but that he communicates with him as often as possible, internet signal permitting. I ask if his Father is in a safe place? His answer is sobering. ‘Is anywhere safe?’ He tells me that his brother-in-law left Aleppo to live in Turkey where he tragically died from cancer. Hazem also tells me that he hopes to one day be half the man his father is, his father is a special man.
Hazem grew up in Aleppo, Syria. Four years ago he moved to Turkey where Zainab was studying for a Masters Degree in Archaeology. He taught himself Turkish at home until he was fluent enough to work as an interpreter in a Hospital in Ankara. Sadly a safe future was not a certainty for him and his young family there and they gratefully accepted the opportunity to come to live in the UK.
Now settled in Frome, Hazem speaks of the great welcome that they have received in this small English town, a town quieter and smaller than any they have lived in before. He speaks of the people who have made such efforts to make them so at home here, friends who come visiting to help them with their English, others who have lived in Syria in the past and can share their stories together and speak in their old familiar language for a short happy while. Frome is obviously a long way from Syria, the differences too many to list, but the family are doing all that they can to settle into the pace of life here.
Hazem speaks of his ambition to get back to working in medicine, an ambition so great that he pushes himself to learn English to as high a standard as possible so that he can re sit his medical exams. Studying medicine is challenge enough for anyone but to even contemplate sitting exams in a whole other language shows a willingness to face any challenge head on. When I say this to Hazem he merely laughs and says that medicine is a universal language really and of course he will do everything he can to go back to being a doctor, it is his calling in life, and to give something back to this country that has been so good to them would be great.
When I ask him what his dream for the future is he says that of course, like all people separated from their homeland under such circumstances, he would some day love to return to there to help rebuild it. He talks about Syria and how it could possibly survive as a country, he asks pertinent questions, ‘Who will rebuild it?’, ‘Who is left there?’, ‘Who will teach those who remain how to rebuild?’ What a dream it would be for those displaced by war to return home with the knowledge that they have learned in such good countries as the UK and to use those skills to make Syria a peaceful country again.
We finish our conversation with talk of the Humans of Frome project and Hazem remarks how nice it is to look for and find the good in people. He says that if you can find the good in people you will have a happier life. Of course this is not always possible but every little bit of good you can find goes a long way to making a better world, a sentiment that I’m sure we all wholeheartedly agree with.
