Leaving home at 10 years old, Bayan doesn’t have much memory of her house in Idlib. All she remembers is packing her bags with her five siblings and parents, and heading to Reyhanli, Turkey. 

Their first stop was a refugee camp she can’t remember the name of. It could be because her brain refuses a memory so painful, or she was too young to recall. Moving from one school to another was very difficult, and making friends was almost impossible because of the fear that at any given moment she could be moving somewhere else. “It was difficult then,” she says,” but now I am thankful that I met all of these different people.” 

After leaving the refugee camp in Reyhanli, Bayan and her family stayed with her uncle until they found their own place. To her, Turkey is her second home, “At this point of my life, I’ve lived in Turkey more than I’ve lived in Syria.” 

In 2017, Bayan joined the Innovative Education program at Karam House. She said having Karam House in Reyhanli was a miracle and a life-changing experience. Through Karam, Bayan met new people and learned skills that helped her during her present and her future. “Karam is a big part of my life. Through Karam House, I met so many people that changed the way I think and introduced me to so many new cultures. This was the first time I held a camera in my hand, and ever since then, I knew that photography was one of my passions. Karam House, in particular, is an important place for Syrians to improve their talents and get to know themselves better so that they don’t get lost…so that they learn about the right path.” 

Bayan graduated from Karam House in 2019, but that wasn’t the end of her journey. She applied to Karam’s scholarship and was awarded it to study Business Administration. Because Karam opened so many doors for Bayan to expand her skills, she put those skills to work to support herself and her family. 

Among the many things that Bayan does, she holds photography sessions for friends and family . “Not a lot of people come to me for photos because I don’t have a camera, I use my phone. But I do end up with great results even with just a phone camera.There is so much that you can do with phones nowadays.”  

Bayan also translates articles, books, and blog posts from Turkish to Arabic and Arabic to Turkish. “My biggest accomplishment in translation and something I am very proud of is translating a chapter of a book of prophet Muhammad’s Hadiths (Sayings) from Turkish to Arabic. Another thing that Bayan does is that she works in graphic design, something she learned from her father and through YouTube, in addition to volunteering in The Syrian Students League, where she runs the Media Branch. Her goal this year is to become the president of the Media Branch.

“Karam made me feel that I belong somewhere. Despite the great people and community around me, I don’t feel that I belong to Turkey. But I also don’t feel that I belong to Syria either because I left so young. I am stuck in between. But when I enter Karam House, I know this is where I’m supposed to be.”