Hussein also has a cousin (another Hussein!) with teenage daughters who speak good English.
When their family farm and flower greenhouse was utterly destroyed in a bombing campaign, they too fled to Beirut. For over five years, they too have struggled to keep body and mind together as stateless refugees with no rights or resources.
Thanks to WhatsApp, their outgoing seventeen-year-old, Hanan, proved to be an invaluable translator for us in the early days of our first sponsorship. When we and the Al Essas needed help — whether it was in an Emergency Room or a Superstore aisle — Hanan would always make herself available, patiently translating Arabic to English, or vice versa — from half-way around the world.
Since getting to know Hanan and her family, we’ve come to learn that she and her teenage sisters are exceptional and ambitious science students, with big dreams (Nawal, who is nineteen, graduated high school last year with top marks). But as it is, such dreams have taken a back seat to day-to-day fears, like whether they’ll have a roof over their heads.
Their father, who finds himself unable to afford to even keep his kids in school, expressed it this way:
I am not an educated person, but my family had dreams. So I went to the city to bring in more money, and I was building this life for them. Then the war came, and took everything, and now we are here in Lebanon, unable to start all over.
I don’t want my kids to grow up feeling like strangers in their own land. I am afraid that, like me, they will remain uneducated.
For my children, I dream of an education that allows them to contribute, and a place where they can feel like they belong.
Hanan has been a tremendous help to us, and now it’s time for us to return the favour.
Project Reunite 