MARWA (AFGHANISTAN)

MARCH 2018 TO MAY 2019

It was a warm day of March when I came to a shelter. I couldn’t speak English but I could understand a bit. I was worried about my future and what will happen. All that without being able to communicate very well. After a couple of days the social worker of my shelter told me that I will go to an English school called Habibi Center to learn English. In those days I wasn’t well because I missed my family and it was almost 3 months I left them. After 3 months I had found a place where I felt safe and I thought: “okay, I will go but I don’t have money to pay”. With so much suffering I told my social worker: “I don’t want to go because I don’t have money to pay for going to this English school”. She laughed and said: “you don’t need to pay. It’s a free school. You can go and learn English without paying”. I couldn’t believe and she told me that some girls of my shelter were already going to Habibi Center. When the girls of my shelter came from school I asked one of them and she told me: “yeah, Habibi Center is for us like our second home and you don’t need to pay for learning there”. I was still doubtful but the next day came and I prepared myself to go there with one of the girls because I didn’t know how to get there. When I reached the school, a girl opened the door and I saw an angel with a peaceful smile. She welcomed us and then she gave me a small test to know my level. After that test she told me: “you are good at learning and there is no need you start in Basic English”. I started coming to Habibi Center every day from 10:00 to 11:30. I remember that every day I was with a special passion and interest in coming to class and day by day I improved and I made friends. I remember every night that I thought about Habibi Center before going to sleep. The days quickly passed until my teacher said: “we are near to a big exam and you all guys should more push themselves for this exam. That moment I couldn’t understand which exam he was talking about and why we should take this exam. And I was a little bit shy and I didn’t ask about the details of this exam. After class I asked my friends and they told me: “it’s a Cambridge English exam and there is one every 6 months in Athens. The school will pay for it and we can get a certificate from Cambridge to show how much we learned English and open a shine way for our future because English is nowadays an international language”. When I heard all of that I was in shock and I couldn’t express my emotions about how nice my teachers were to sacrifice their time and money to help us to learn a language. That day tears ran down my face and I cried inconsolably. I will never forget that unforgettable day. Everyday we were going to Habibi Center with willpower and a hard working attitude to pass the Cambridge exam. The day of the exam came and I remembered I had stress but, when I looked at my teacher how they encouraged us for take a good result, my stress changed to power, not only for taking a good result but to make them happy for all the hard work they did for us. After that exam I took an A2 Certificate and because I had to travel to Netherlands for living l couldn’t continue at Habibi Center. It was the 5th of May when I left my sweet home, Habibi Center. And on the 8th of May I also left Greece to go to the Netherlands. I should mention that by the blessing of Habibi Center I can speak well English in here and express myself in English. Sometimes when people ask me: “how did you learn English?”, I tell them about Habibi Center and my teachers. They can’t believe that within a year I was able to learn English so well. I appreciate my teachers and I want to say thank you for all the hard work and sacrifice teaching English to refugees’ girls and boys to have a good future. You are unforgettable in our hearts. With love from the bottom of my heart, Marwa