Beyond the connection: Connected future
18-year-old Ghali lives with cerebral palsy (CP) that affects his movement, coordination and speech. Life hasn’t been easy since he fled his home in Daraa to Damascus with his family due to the conflict in Syria.
Like many people with disabilities in Syria, Ghali has been grappling with many barriers that hinder his full and meaningful participation. Nine years of the current violent crisis in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, have only exacerbated his experience of exclusion.
Ghali, meaning “precious” in Arabic, has just graduated from high school and is looking forward to college. Since a very young age, he had a passion for computers. With what available resources he could find online, and sheer determination, he taught himself several programming languages such as Java, Python and many more. He even developed a mobile application that provides text to voice translation to help him communicate and overcome his speech impediment.
“I’ve always dreamed about studying computer science and specializing in programming so I can develop digital solutions to help myself, and others like me overcome some of our daily challenges” says Ghali.
Thanks to the generous donations from people around the world and matched funds from the Government of Finland, through the “Un-silence my world” crowdfunding campaign in Syria, Ghali received a free internet bundle of 50 Gigabytes per month for one-year.
Like many vulnerable people in Syria, Ghali suffered from several difficulties that prevented him from having a stable connection such as slow internet connection, frequent electricity cuts in addition to the high cost.
“Having a 4G data connection allows me to have better and smoother access to information on time. It is very fast compared to the frustratingly slow connection at my house that I had to share with my parents, brother and sister” added Ghali.
Explaining the rationale for the initiative, UNDP Project Manager, Louay Fallouh says, “It was alarming to see the low number of students with disabilities applying for the high school exams. We saw a huge need for connectivity, especially during lockdown where internet is more of a lifeline to PWDs”.
An estimated 27% of the total population in Syria suffer from some form of disability, and Ghali is one of the 13% of people with disabilities that represent high school students in Syria.
The “Un-silence my world” crowdfunding campaign in Syria was a part of a pilot regional individual giving initiative of the Regional Bureau for Arab States in UNDP entitled “Solidarity against COVID-19: Together we are one!” in seven Arab countries.
Ghali is applying to the Syrian Virtual University and he hopes that the internet package provided by UNDP will help him achieve his goal and realize his dream.
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Written by Asma’ Nashawati, Communications Associate, UNDP Syria
