Recently, we caught up with Khairo Khatib, an Al Salam School graduate currently studying at Concordia University in Montreal. A recipient of one of the Syrian Kids Foundation’s (SKF) Canadian scholarships, Khairo tells us about his journey to Al Salam, the school’s valuable acceleration program, his passion for computers, and his hopes for SKF to continue and grow its important work.
Khairo and his family are originally from Kafranbel, Syria, a city near Idlib. He lived in Syria for a few years during the war, and shares how it was not always safe to leave the house and go to school. While the situation was complicated and dangerous, it was still his home, and Khairo was not initially eager to leave for Turkey. Though in reflection, he is grateful they left when they did in 2013, as millions of others didn’t have the chance, and it’s uncertain what their future would have been otherwise.
By the time he reached grade 11 age, Khairo hadn’t completed grade 10 because of the circumstances closing schools in Syria. He had studied grade 10 math privately through a teacher he knew, but lacked education in other subjects. As his family moved between different Turkish cities upon arrival, these gaps made it difficult for Khairo to regain momentum in his education. When he completed the twelfth grade at a different school, he didn’t feel ready to take the final standardized exam, covering all subjects in 3 hours and the first supervised by the Turkish ministry. Further, the ministry made frequent changes to this test for Syrians in the beginning stages without adequate notice or information, creating more stress, confusion, and pressure for students like Khairo. He sat the exam only to see the questions, and he left feeling upset and disappointed with his situation.
Eventually, Khairo and his family coincidentally ended up in Reyhanli, the city of Al Salam School where he registered to repeat the twelfth grade. Khairo shares how it was only at Al Salam that he truly regained quality education. The school’s great support helped and motivated him to catch up on his missed years and pass his exams with high, well-deserved grades.
Khairo is one of many students entering Al Salam who, due to Syria’s circumstances, were cut off from their education for several years, and fell behind students their age. Instead of placing a 13-year-old who dropped school in the 2nd grade back in a 2nd grade class with kids much younger than him, for example, Al Salam hosted an acceleration program that would compress the most important parts from all his missed grades’ curricula into one year, so that he could join his age group the following year. If the student had only missed a year or two, the program would consist of extra classes and they could remain in sync with their age group. In this way, Al Salam fosters these students’ mental health and self-confidence while providing them with a complete education and accommodating a critical consequence of the events in Syria. Indeed, many of these students have succeeded onwards to university, a point of pride for SKF.
When Khairo had the opportunity for a Canadian scholarship through SKF at Al Salam, he was already learning English as a personal goal, not necessarily for the TOEFL exam. He knew that English was the language of science nowadays, and wanted to learn so that he could read freely about new research and developments that interested him. To prepare for the TOEFL, he committed to frequent Skype sessions with various tutors in SKF’s virtual English tutoring program. He shares how valuable and helpful these sessions were to him, not only for the rare opportunity to practice speaking, but also because many of the tutors had taken the TOEFL themselves, and offered unique insights from this perspective. Coupled with several mock tests and the initiative to continually expand his vocabulary, Khairo became very comfortable with the new language.
Now in Canada, Khairo has adapted very well to the new environment since his first semester at Concordia in Fall 2018, making many new friends and settling into a program he’s passionate about. He studies software engineering, following his long-standing fascination with computers from a young age. With 2 semesters left to complete, Khairo remains engaged in practical learning and projects outside the classroom as well, setting himself up for a successful career.
In the future, Khairo hopes to find a way to reunite with his family still in Turkey, wherever in the world that may be. He hasn’t seen them in almost 4 years, and especially after his father’s passing, he expresses how difficult it is being away for so long.
As for the future of SKF, Khairo is very hopeful about the foundation’s growth and hopes to be a part of it. He wishes to see more infrastructure expansion, continued summer programs for community preservation, more regional and international scholarship opportunities, and programming or electricity workshops for Al Salam students that he would love to volunteer with.
“I want them to know that their support is paying off,” he shares as a final message to SKF supporters, “and we here are a prime example of that. It’s not just me, all people in Syria have gone through a lot. I want to take this chance to thank them for all they provided and all that they continue to provide.”