Aiming for the sky: Aram, photographer and Amala alumnus, shares his story

Aram presenting his personal interest project

Aram has always dreamed of becoming a pilot, and movement is something that has defined much of his nineteen years so far. In 2013, Aram’s world changed when war broke out in his native Iraq and he was forced to flee to Lebanon with his family. After five years, they had the opportunity to move to Sweden, where Aram spent a year of his childhood, but it was too difficult to make ends meet, so the family decided to move back to Iraq. “I never experienced the childhood some kids experience, because of moving from place to place, meeting people from different cultures, you know, Lebanese, Muslims, Christians, Swedish people. I had so many friends from other countries, so it was hard to know who I was, actually. I was just a kid, following my family.” His family were on the verge of resettling to Australia when Covid-19 hit, and they were stuck in Iraq for another two years before coming to Jordan in 2022.

All of this had a profound impact on Aram’s education. In Lebanon, everything was different to what he’d experienced in Iraq. The main language after Arabic was French, which Aram didn’t know at all. In Sweden, his English fluency helped him, but he had to stop education completely at seventh grade when he had to move back to Iraq. His father wanted to enrol him at school there, but the ministry of education blocked him from doing so, and Aram was told that he’d have to go back to Sweden if he wanted to continue studying. Being rejected by his own country affected Aram. He knew that there were educational opportunities out there - in Sweden, for example, he’d been able to learn. He felt stuck and frustrated. 

Things changed when Aram moved to Jordan and found Amala. “Everything was different when I came to Amala,” said Aram. He initially thought it was just an English course, and applied at the last minute. When he left the selection day, he was buzzing with excitement, full of confidence that he’d been accepted even though there were hundreds of other hopeful applicants, because he knew that Amala was for him. And it was different from any kind of learning or school Aram had experienced before.

Aram and the Jordan team on graduation day

“The best part of it is that you feel included to share your thoughts, without anyone telling you what to think. Everyone listens to you, and gives you the space to express yourself. That’s what kept me at Amala. The community, and the whole idea of it. You don’t just come to study and go home - Amala feels more like family for me.”

Aram discovered a passion for photography through attending fellow Amala alumnus Baha’a’s photography workshop at Amala, which sparked his interest in photography as he realised that it could be more than just ‘clicking buttons’. A few months later, he bought a used camera with money that his aunt had gifted him for graduation. It was a hard sell to his father, who initially told Aram he was wasting his money, and implored him to help the family out instead - Aram’s mother is a housewife, and his father can’t work presently due to sickness, so they need all the income they can. But Aram believed in his photography enough to persevere. Soon, he secured freelance jobs with a local photography studio and slowly convinced his father that the camera could help him both follow his passion and earn an income.

“Amala changed me a lot, especially in a year. I became another person. I became more responsible, people started to like me more for who I am. One year can change a lot for a person, and that’s what happened to me in the year and a half at Amala.”

Aram with his coursemates at the Amala centre in Amman

He further developed his photography skills through his Personal Interest Project, a core part of the learning on the Global Secondary Diploma Programme, and started building up an online presence, getting lots of views on his page.

Now, the challenge is sustaining that livelihood in an increasingly competitive world. But Aram’s mindset has changed; through Amala, he has become a better leader, volunteering at any opportunity he can. And his dream of becoming a pilot is still there. The training is expensive and requires a university science degree, so he sometimes wonders if joining the air force might be a more realistic path. “But I’m only nineteen”, Aram says, with hope. “I still have a long way to go, and I’m trying to do my best.” 

Aram speaking on stage at his GSD graduation event