Learning to read and write in Maxmur refugee camp

Learning to read and write in Maxmur refugee camp

The reading and writing courses by the Women’s Foundation at Maxmur Camp, where Kurdish refugees live, are attracting considerable interest. The middle-aged women participants of the courses, which have produced graduates three times before, ask for the courses to continue and say: “We want to continue their education in Kurdish”.

The reading and writing course for women at Maxmur Camp have started three months ago. The course teacher Sêvê Kara, noting that the course attendees are showing more interest in reading and writing with each passing day, says: “Our women are now able to write, they can easily read and write the sentences they compose.”

While teacher Kara remarks that women want to pass a second class and continue their education, a course-attendee 60-year-old Asya says: “I will attend the course as long as it continues because I learned to read here. It is a great pleasure to come here every day with books and notebooks in my hand.”

Asya tells that she couldn’t go to a school as a child because of the difficulties she was living in Kurdistan and adds: “Education is very important for the Kurds because educated people cannot be persecuted by anyone. Women in particular must be educated.” Another course-attendee is Rêzbar Ayar, one of those learning to read and write at the course, who attends the course every day after taking her 6 year-old daughter to school.  Ayar remarks that she learned the alphabet together with her daughter.

While Oznûr Kaya expresses that she is realizing her dream at the course as she also couldn’t go to a school as there wasn’t one in their village. Fifty years old Esma Ozcan demands the continuation of the courses as she feels happy about each letter she learns each day.