By Faris Rifai
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ahmed Hamzat, young man from Yarmouk Camp of Palestinian refugee in Damascus, had been living in Sweden for two years, however, he managed to learn the Sweden language within 6 months and initiate a project about “the Language’s friend”, aims to bridge the gap between the Syrians and Palestinian from one side, with Sweden people from the other. He was nominated for the prize of creativity and innovation of Sodertalje town in Stockholm.
Ahmed studied Engineering of Mechanics and Electricity in Damascus University, however, when the Syrian revolution started and war reached to Yarmouk camp, he was forced to leave the country, he sought asylum in Sweden, waited for a year to obtain the residency. He managed to learn Swedish language within 6 months, and joined a training session for language and integration lasted 3 months as part of a project called “Language’s Friend”.
The idea of his project started when he noticed the difficulties face Arabs, especially Syrians and Palestinians in learning Swedish, he thought of using the social media to create a pool of ideas and suggestions helping in tackling the communication difficulties facing refugees.
Hamzat explained that the aim of his project was to help the refugees, especially new comers to learn Swedish an break the barrier between them and Swedish people by helping them in finding and forming sort of friendship between them and people in Sweden, which can facilitate the way to new comers to integrate in the community without any social or psychological barriers, and know how to deal with native people from one side, and to show Swedish people that they had come to the country to learn and work, not to have fun and be a heavy burden on the government an community.
The prize winner mentioned that the idea was widely welcomed among refugees and Sweden community, then he contacted the municipality to support the project, which provided him with a hall to work on activating the idea, which encouraged a Swedish newspaper to send him an email telling him that he was nominated for the innovation prize.
The prize according to Hamzat consists of many parts, one for best company, best association, best leader, and for people who have influence on the community and prizes are distributed annually. “I am proud that I was nominated for the prize as a refugee”
Hamzat explained that refugees find learning Swedish language difficult because it is new language and not so popular, but they need to learn it because it is the key for understanding and being active in the country.
He explained that obtaining the trust of Swedish people is very important in learning language, but it needs effort and confident. “but I was able within two years to gain mutual trust with Swedish people, and that gave me the ability to help refugees in return”
He thanked the Swedish people for welcoming Syrians refugees, who in return need to work hard and be effective and useful part of community.
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ahmed Hamzat, young man from Yarmouk Camp of Palestinian refugee in Damascus, had been living in Sweden for two years, however, he managed to learn the Sweden language within 6 months and initiate a project about “the Language’s friend”, aims to bridge the gap between the Syrians and Palestinian from one side, with Sweden people from the other. He was nominated for the prize of creativity and innovation of Sodertalje town in Stockholm.
Ahmed studied Engineering of Mechanics and Electricity in Damascus University, however, when the Syrian revolution started and war reached to Yarmouk camp, he was forced to leave the country, he sought asylum in Sweden, waited for a year to obtain the residency. He managed to learn Swedish language within 6 months, and joined a training session for language and integration lasted 3 months as part of a project called “Language’s Friend”.
The idea of his project started when he noticed the difficulties face Arabs, especially Syrians and Palestinians in learning Swedish, he thought of using the social media to create a pool of ideas and suggestions helping in tackling the communication difficulties facing refugees.
Hamzat explained that the aim of his project was to help the refugees, especially new comers to learn Swedish an break the barrier between them and Swedish people by helping them in finding and forming sort of friendship between them and people in Sweden, which can facilitate the way to new comers to integrate in the community without any social or psychological barriers, and know how to deal with native people from one side, and to show Swedish people that they had come to the country to learn and work, not to have fun and be a heavy burden on the government an community.
The prize winner mentioned that the idea was widely welcomed among refugees and Sweden community, then he contacted the municipality to support the project, which provided him with a hall to work on activating the idea, which encouraged a Swedish newspaper to send him an email telling him that he was nominated for the innovation prize.
The prize according to Hamzat consists of many parts, one for best company, best association, best leader, and for people who have influence on the community and prizes are distributed annually. “I am proud that I was nominated for the prize as a refugee”
Hamzat explained that refugees find learning Swedish language difficult because it is new language and not so popular, but they need to learn it because it is the key for understanding and being active in the country.
He explained that obtaining the trust of Swedish people is very important in learning language, but it needs effort and confident. “but I was able within two years to gain mutual trust with Swedish people, and that gave me the ability to help refugees in return”
He thanked the Swedish people for welcoming Syrians refugees, who in return need to work hard and be effective and useful part of community.
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