Iman: “I can’t go to school because my mum has to work”
I loved learning. I loved my friends. English was my favourite subject. I don’t know a lot, but I love to learn. My first teacher was my favourite, I had him in grade one and two. He was from our village. I loved him because he was the first to teach me something, and because he was kind.
On the last day of school they gave me a certificate to say I passed grade four. They had said before that the school would be closing because of the war, but on the last day they told us that they would open it again after the holidays after all. I was so happy because I thought I would see my friends and teachers again.
When we left Syria, it was the summer holidays.
There was a lot of bombing. The sound that the aeroplanes made when they were flying round our house, it really scared me. Then we left and came to Lebanon. Here there aren’t any bombs, but even if we hear a normal aeroplane we get scared.
I went to a school in Lebanon for a while. But I left that school five months ago.
I can’t go to school because my mum has to work and someone has to take care of my brothers and sisters.
My jobs are to clean the floor, to put away the beds, and to take care of my five little brothers and sisters while my parents are at work. I let them play but I don’t play with them. If I don’t have any chores to do I watch them, but I’m usually busy.
Even so, I want to be a teacher when I grow up, because I want to teach children.
Just as I want to learn, I know that when I grow up, there will be children who want to learn too.
Iman, 11, is from the Aleppo countryside in Syria. She has been in Lebanon 18 months. She lives in an informal tented settlement in the Beqaa valley.
