“I was in seventh grade and I’d passed the official exams but I knew it was the end of my schooling,” says Marwa. “We are a family of six and my parents want to give a basic education for my other siblings too. So they couldn’t afford to pay my high school fees. That’s why I dropped out of school.”
When Marwa saw ANERA’s vocational education poster in a community center in Beirut’s southern suburb, she says it changed everything and renewed her dream of finishing school. She didn’t hesitate to apply. After Marwa got the scholarship she wanted to enroll in mechanical engineering. “But the supervisor told me this specialty was only open to men, so I chose architectural drawing,” Marwa explains. “Even though architecture was not my first choice, I managed to be the best of my class for all three years!”
She is now at the American University of Science and Technology studying mechatronic engineering.