Our Berlin Wall in Syria · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Syrian Students for a Better Future is a WordPress blog by Syrian students at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The students are studying in the US as part of Jusoor Initiative to help Syrians continue their higher education outside Syria through scholarships. The blog, which has posts in Arabic and English, reflects the students hopes, doubts, worries, optimism, homesickness and wishes for a better future in their home.
Safouh Takrouri wrote his post Our Berlin Wall in Syria saying:
After reuniting the people of German, individuals and communities started to plan for its future. A future free from wars, blood and disputes. A future full of achievements and development.
People now in Syria are divided in two groups – maybe more. Each group has its own opinion, and believes in its own vision for the future of the country. Each group is right in so many points; and wrong in too many ways as well. No doubt, each group loves their country and some are ready to give their souls freely for it. While to many victims of this horrific violence and suffering never asked for their lives and those of their families to be so disrupted. Every citizen and resident of Syria has the right to give his or her opinion for the future of the country in which his or her child will live, but these opinions – different as they may be – should be respected. Honest, fair, transparent and respectful debate should be our strategy for working together; this should be our moral code, our law – and for centuries this has been our Syria. Today, we are experiencing a low point.
Despite the whole dark news that comes from Syria, I cannot be pessimistic.
Syrian Students for a better future. Source WordPress Blog. Used BY CC 3.0
Mariela Shaker who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music at Monmouth College, and previously studied at Aleppo University, was happy to meet her Syrian colleagues. Hoping for better Syria she expressed:
I very much hope that all the Syrian students are doing very well in their new colleges, and are keeping up the hard work so that we can continue to represent our country very well in all fields, and so that Syria will be proud of us always.