My name is Abdulrazak, and I’m sixteen years old. I’m originally from Hama, Syria, but we left the country in 2014 and have been in Reyhanli, Turkey ever since. 

My dad passed away and it was just me, my mom, and my two sisters left when we got her. That’s why I couldn’t go to school at first. Instead, I had to work to help support my family. I spent a long time looking for something to do, but my uncle helped me find a job with a mechanic. So at around nine years old, I was fixing engines. 

I would work from eight in the morning to ten at night. Because I was young, it actually wasn’t that hard. But I still wanted to go to school.

Thankfully, around two years after I started working, the Karam Families team found us and gave me the chance to do just that. 

The best thing about school is being in class because I get to learn. Learning is important. I want to be able to read and write and prioritize education. Although I don’t really think about what I want to be in the future, I think working as a mechanic has become a part of my identity. I definitely want to go to college and I want to study engineering. That way, I can go back to the car world.

When I first came to Reyhanli, I liked it a lot. I still do, but I really hope that we can go back to Syria soon. Turkey is nice, but Syria is my country. It’s home and it always will be. For now, though, my goal is to be there for my mother and my family. I want to be able to support them in any way I can.