Dream Big, Work Hard: Maryam and Ahmed's Story
Maryam and Ahmed were only eight and seven years old when they left their home country of Yemen in 2015. Born to a Yemeni father and a Somali mother, the pair of siblings spoke only Arabic when their family first arrived in Indonesia.
Much like other refugee children here, Maryam and Ahmed had little to do at first. Ahmed spent most of his time at home, while Maryam befriended the local neighborhood children and played outside. However, both being bright children, they quickly picked up the basics of Bahasa Indonesia. With the help of a connection at an Indonesian charity, this was enough to earn them the unique opportunity of enrolling at a local elementary school.
Still, having only a rudimentary understanding of Bahasa meant that the siblings had a harder time adjusting. Maryam laughs as she recalls a particular day when Ahmed could only repeat “Apa?” (“What?”) over and over again — he couldn’t understand anything that was being said to him. Maryam herself, who has difficulty reading, relied on a newfound friend to help her understand the lessons.
While Maryam and Ahmed did manage to make a few friends at the elementary school, for the most part, they didn’t get along with most of the people there. As the only two Yemenis in a student body that was almost exclusively Indonesian, they were singled out constantly by teachers and fellow students alike. “When new people come to the school, they are being mean,” says Maryam. People would point out aspects of their physical appearance, and they felt “punished” for looking different.
Then, in 2017, a solution presented itself. Through word-of-mouth, Maryam and Ahmed’s father had heard of a school specifically for refugees. The family were living in Ciputat at the time — quite a distance away — but immediately began to look for a new home so they could move closer to the school. The following year, both Ahmed and Maryam enrolled at Roshan Learning Center.
Given their previous experience, the siblings were a little apprehensive at first. Ahmed was “pretty nervous”, and Maryam felt shy. “I didn’t know the people, and I didn’t know English at all — like, zero,” she says. But they made friends very easily, and quickly came to love the diverse, welcoming community they found. “Roshan is the same like you are in heaven. The people are nice and polite, and they have wide hearts,” says Maryam. “Roshan is like a duck teaching her kids how to swim,” Ahmed adds wisely.
Now in Upper Primary, it seems the siblings have learned a lot in the year since they first joined Roshan. Although Maryam still considers herself to be more fluent in Bahasa, she has no problem holding a conversation in English. Ahmed is pretty good, too: “I’m full of English. I know every word in English,” he says. “Except ‘article’.” They both love their teachers, and even love doing homework. The routine and learning environment at Roshan suits them well. “I become more active, I wake up, I do stuff and not be lazy,” Ahmed says.
Outside of school, both Maryam and Ahmed have been exploring their own unique interests. Their father introduced them to coding and digital marketing, respectively. But Maryam’s struggles with reading made it difficult to learn how to code, and digital marketing wasn’t very gripping for Ahmed — so they happily swapped.
Earlier this year, Ahmed joined a coding class led by a refugee volunteer teacher at YICF, Roshan’s parent organization. With the sponsorship of a family friend, he also completed an introduction to programming course at Hacktiv8. As with their homework, the siblings work together: Maryam has been learning how to use Mailchimp, the online marketing platform, and is helping her brother by promoting his website. Despite their young age, the kids have a very clear idea of what they want to be when they grow up. Maryam wants to enter the world of marketing, while Ahmed has dreams of becoming a pro developer.
But whatever happens, family comes first, no matter what. Maryam wants to see Yemen at peace again so that she can go back home and see the rest of her family. “I want to go to Yemen and eat popcorn with my grandma and grandpa. And ice cream,” she says. For now, however, they are happy to be wherever their mother and father are, for their parents are their heroes. “Super duper heroes!” Ahmed exclaims.