News location:

Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Escaping a broken world for hope in Canberra

Brothers Ali, left, and Mohamad Alrajab at the Big Barber shop in Jamison. Photo: Belle Strahorn

TWO years ago brothers Mohamad and Ali Alrajab arrived in Australia with their parents and seven siblings aboard a plane.

Given everything the family had endured fleeing the war in Syria that had ripped their world apart, grateful is an understatement when it comes to describing how they felt.

The brothers finally felt “safe” and had a home they would grow to adopt as their own, a home in Canberra that would help them escape the horrors of the past.

“Every night in Syria we would go to bed feeling scared,” says Mohamad, now 19 years old.

“The nights were the worst because of all the sounds, you can’t sleep, especially with all the kids in my family and all the crying… it was hard, very hard.”

When war broke out in Syria in 2011, Mohamad, who had dreamed of becoming a soccer player, was just 10 years old.

“We couldn’t go to school, everyone was scared and some people had disappeared,” he says.

“We would have one day a week of electricity that’s it, we had to heat our water on the fire to make food and then to shower.”

Three years later in 2014, his family fled, after the brutal crackdown of ISIS on their village of al-Mashi, in Northern Syria.

“It was so bad,” Mohamad says.

“We could see the helicopters, they would hit places, we saw fires, we saw people get killed. 

“Then ISIS started coming so we left, we were very lucky to leave because they took children, so if we stayed there we would have gone with them.”

The family’s journey took them from Syria to Lebanon and then finally to Australia where they were granted asylum under a refugee program.

“It was a 16-hour bus journey from Syria to Lebanon,” Mohamad says.

“We stayed in Lebanon for four-and-a-half-years, I didn’t go to school, I would go to work with my dad in a supermarket packing shelves, working 10-hour days, seven days a week.

“We were lucky to move to Lebanon. It was still bad there but it was better than Syria, there are a lot of problems there but at least we could work.”

Living in limbo in Lebanon with limited opportunities, Mohamad says his family were desperate to move.

“In 2015, on the first day of Ramadan, we got a call from an organisation that sends people to places as refugees, they said they were happy to help us but we had to wait until 2018 to leave, that was a happy day.”

The family settled in Canberra on June 22, 2018 – a date etched in Mohamad’s mind.

“When we arrived in Canberra we stayed at a hotel in Kingston for two weeks, then we were moved into our house in Macquarie, the Red Cross helped us and Centrelink,” he says.

At first things were tough.

“Everything was completely different, the weather, the language, the food, even sleeping at night,” Mohamad says.

But things started to turn around for Mohamad when he started school at Dickson College and began to work part-time at the local barber shop, Big Barber, at the Jamieson shops.

“The boss of the barber shop became friends with my dad and asked him if I’d like to work here after school, on the weekends and during the holidays and I said why not,” he says.

“When I first started I didn’t know how to hold the scissors or clippers so I’d just clean the shop and welcome customers. I came every day after school, then I started doing simple hair cuts like a number one all over, then a number two and now I can cut a beard and do everything.”

Today the budding barber, avid reader and soon-to-be CIT student studying IT and cyber security, says life in Canberra has offered opportunities and friendships he’s thankful for.

“We love it here, we feel safe,” he says.

“We love Canberra, the people are kind, we have had a lot of support and a lot of help, especially from Dickson College and my teacher Ros Phillips from the refugee bridging program who helped me prepare for my studies.”

But, Mohamad admits, the situation has not always been easy for his family, particularly for his sister who has a disability.

“My sister can’t hear, she has problems talking and pronouncing words,” Mohamad explains.

“She had a lot of operations in Syria and Lebanon that didn’t work, but since coming here she’s had more operations and she’s much better… she can read and say lots of words and she goes to school.

“My parents don’t speak English, it’s been hard for them, they don’t work, my mum looks after the kids, my dad sometimes goes to study at CIT learning English, it’s not been easy for them.”

Mohamad’s younger brother, Ali, 17, a keen Raiders’ supporter and Madrid football fan, is following in his brother’s footsteps working part time at the barber shop and will complete his studies at Dickson College next year.

“We are happy here, there was no future for us in Syria, we would be gone with the fighting or have disappeared,” Ali says. 

“If you are 13 or 14 years old they take you away to fight and they teach you how to fire the guns.”

The brothers agree that seeking asylum from persecution and being able to call a new country home is an invaluable “gift”.

“Syria is still special to me because I was born there but my future is here,” Mohamad says smiling.

“The opportunities are incredible… Australia has given me everything.”

 

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Belinda Strahorn

Belinda Strahorn

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews