Tag: refugees
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Quitting Syria

After Seven Years, My Job Is No Longer Syria Conflict-Related Arlington, MA-February 2023 On Tuesday, I left all my Syria WhatsApp groups and unsubscribed from Syria update emails and live trackers. Afterwards I felt a huge sense of relief. I have more to say about it – about what changed in my life these past…
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Do Refugees Benefit from Participating In UN Research Studies? (Part 2)

What I Learned From Interviewing Syrian Refugee Families In Jordan This is Part 2 of my story about interviewing a Syrian refugee family for a UN research study I worked on in Jordan a few years ago. Read Part 1 here: Do Refugees Benefit From Participating In UN Research Studies? (Part 1) In Part 1, I…
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Do Refugees Benefit From Participating In UN Research Studies? (Part 1)

What I Learned From Interviewing Syrian Refugees In Jordan CONTENT WARNING: This piece contains graphic language describing Syrian war killings. Feel free to opt out and read last week’s post or my most read post instead! July 2019-Northern Jordan The woman, in black niqab with only her eyes showing, handed off her newborn baby girl…
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How to Set a Boundary Across Cultural Lines (Or Not)

Can I cut Alaa out of my life? Stop responding to his texts forever? “Yes!” say Brene Brown and Nora McInerny and Emily McDowell and so many others who have put their stories of loss and learning and boundaries out into the world (and Instagram). “Yes!” say Julia Cameron and Laura van Dernoot Lipsky –…
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I Can’t Remember A Time When I Wasn’t Tired

And why I lied to my colleagues about the cause of my exhaustion. This is part 2 of 3 in my series on burning out from humanitarian work a few years ago. Read Part 1 here: When I Finally Got Overwhelmed By My Humanitarian Job A week or so after I got back to Amman,…

–مرحبا سلام Thank you so much, what a lovely comment to receive! I think you’re right; we can’t always be…