Fleeing To A Future

Syrian refugees get a university education with help from a German startup.

- Laura Colby

Sajida had just begun her university education at the Engineering Technical Institute in Damascus when the bombs began to fall. It was November 2014, and the 19-year-old fled with her family to Turkey, where she worked in a clothing factory, a Syrian restaurant, and a library before finally getting the chance to travel to Greece.

“The water was up to my neck,” she says, recounting a struggle to reach the dinghy that would take her across a narrow strait to the island of Lesbos. Alternating among trains, buses, and simply walking, Sajida and her older sister eventually made their way to Germany. As she describes her trek, Sajida is brutally concise about the ordeal refugees like her must endure, particularly when braving unforgiving seas. “It was terrifying,” she says.

Once Sajida reached Western Europe, she had another problem. A year or more may pass before refugees can attain the legal status and language fluency needed to continue their education at a German university. In the meantime, they must wait to complete schooling that, in her case, began more than a year ago and 2,700 kilometres away.

A group of three German friends in their twenties saw this languishing group of potential students as an opportunity. They created Kiron, a free online learning platform especially for refugees. Sajida (who, like other refugees, asked to be identified only by her first name to protect her family) is one of more than 1,250 students who signed up for its classes, which are taught in English. Kiron’s founders have raised more than €3 million ($3.3 million) from a crowdfunding campaign as well as from private and corporate donors ranging from Google to BMW. The trio aims to fill a gap of otherwise wasted time—during which refugees can develop skills or earn degrees that could help them acclimatise to their new country, or prepare for the day when they can return home.