Miami student stands for Syrian refugees

To many, the Syrian refugee crisis may seem to be a far-away thing -- the product of a war seen only through TV screens. But, to junior Sara Al-Zubi, the plight of refugees is real and present, even here in Ohio, and she has taken it upon herself to do whatever she can to help resettle refugee families who have traveled across the ocean to find safety in America.

Sara, a human capital management and leadership major on the pre-med track, was born in Mongolia and lived in Jordan from when she was two years old until she was about eight. She is the oldest of three children, and her family decided to move to the United States because they knew opportunities for women were limited in the Middle East.

They ended up in Indianapolis, then later moved to Lexington and finally settled in Cincinnati. It was a difficult change, to say the least. Sara learned English faster than anyone in her family and, as a result, took on somewhat of a parental role within the family.

Now in the U.S., aspects of herself that she had never questioned before set her apart from the broader culture.

Although being an immigrant and being a refugee are different in many ways, the shared experience of adjusting to culture shock and overcoming a language barrier gives Sara a way to relate to the displaced Syrian families she works with, especially when she comes into direct contact with them through Cincinnati's RefugeeConnect program. This program focuses not only on bringing refugees into the country, but also into the community.

"I realized that what I did all of my childhood for my parents...carrying everything on my shoulders...I just switched out my parents for refugees," she said.

Newly resettled families are often suspicious and wary of Sara and her fellow workers when they first meet, but through their shared understanding of how difficult it is to start over, they end up forging strong relationships.

"I don't see them as just people I work with," Sara said. "They are family."

Sara has a better idea than most when trying to understand the world these refugees are trying to escape. Her family has been back to Jordan multiple times since immigrating to the US, most recently about two years ago.

The civil war in Syria, which began in 2011, has put immense strain on Jordan, a small country the size of Indiana without major industry or resources. Jordan has taken in over 1 million Syrian refugees since the start of the war. Meanwhile, schools and healthcare facilities are saturated with refugees, and most of the neighbors in the area Sara's family once lived are Syrian.

In the north of the country, the war is never far away.

"[It's] so close to the border, you can hear the bombing," Sara said. "It's not distant, it's not a news story, it's not the TV. It's in your backyard."

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There are about 5,000 refugees settled in Ohio, with around 400-600 of them in the Cincinnati area. Legislation from the current presidential administration has made it more difficult for refugees to complete the already long process of entering the United States, and so fewer are arriving than ever before.

Throughout the trying course of resettlement, the refugees Sara works with have shown her incredible positivity, resilience and perseverance.

Sara's work with refugees has largely centered around getting them access to better healthcare, especially regarding mental health. She has seen firsthand the trauma fleeing from a war-torn country inflicts on refugee families.

She has even started her own nonprofit called 3Sisters Foundation, which puts in place an Arabic-speaking hotline for refugees struggling with mental health.

The work that most stands out in her mind is what she did two summers ago as part of RefugeeConnect.

Sara's job was part of the organization's programming for refugee children. Throughout the summer, she would take the kids from one family out to do fun, normal things, like going to the pool, park or library.

The first time they went to the library, she tried to get library cards for the kids. The librarian asked for the children's birthdays. They looked at Sara, confused. They didn't know when their birthdays were.

In part, this is due to the war in Syria making it difficult to get a hold of official records. In part, it is due to a lifestyle that doesn't allow for much celebration.

"A lot of those kids spend a lot of time in camps, and [birthdays] are not really what's on your mind," Al-Zubi said. "It's so much about survival that the kid part of it gets left out."

On the way home from the library, one of the young girls asked Sara what she wanted to do with her life.

"Oh, I want to be a doctor," Sara said.

"But you're a girl," the child said.

"Yeah," Sara replied.

"Okay," she said. "Can girls be doctors?"

"Of course," Sara told her.

"Well," the girl said, "I want to be like you."

It's moments like this that make direct work with refugee families dearest to Sara's heart.

Besides her work with RefugeeConnect and the founding of the 3Sisters Foundation, Sara is involved with many other organizations.

She is a member of the Ohio Refugee Advisory Council, which advises the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services on matters relating to resettlement. She is the founder and director of Peace of Mail, a project in which people from around the world wrote letters to refugee children.

She is also the founder and president of the newly-formed Refugee Advisory Council at Miami, which plans to raise awareness on-campus of the refugee crisis. And she is a Country Ambassador of the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs, where she works on recruiting North American students for a UN symposium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Going into next year Sara, plans to continue work on improving healthcare for refugees and trying to create a scholarship to bring more refugee students to Miami.

Recently, Sara was awarded the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which grants her $30,000 to attend medical school and work towards her dream of being a doctor and a public servant. She is the only 2018 Truman Scholar from Ohio and the first from Miami University in 15 years.

She is honored and excited to be given such an opportunity but does not define herself by that achievement alone.

"I never did anything because I wanted to have that label," she said. "I saw the need and I saw that I may have a chance at helping these people."

arwinejk@miamioh.edu