Dreaming Beyond Barriers: Salwan’s Story

When Salwan was only eight months old, he caught a high fever that left half of his body paralysed. He lost control of one side of his leg and hand. From a young age, Salwan’s father, Eissa, took great care of him.

As a child, Salwan was embraced with love and warmth inside his home. Eissa would accompany him to school and offered him words of support and comfort regarding his condition. The memories of those early days, when Eissa motivated him, remain the happiest and closest to his heart.

Problems started to arise when Salwan became a teenager and began going out of the house on his own, meeting others in his neighbourhood. “When I was going out in the neighbourhood and asked my peers to join them in playing football, they would bully me and say, ‘You have a disability and cannot play football.’ Or they would laugh at me. Even when I was doing the shopping for the home, they would bully me. I suffered a lot,” said Salwan.

He then joined a football team with other boys in his neighbourhood, a game he loved deeply and a hobby close to his heart. But this experience also negatively affected his morale, as his peers would often blame the loss of a game on his disability. He quit football after that. Salwan said, “Those were very difficult times. When you are a child, you love playing football and games with other children, but I started to hate it because of the bullying.”

The situation was not easier at school, as his teacher also bullied him and made jokes about him to make other students laugh. Salwan said, “I suffered a lot in my childhood.”

Born and raised in Al Ba’aj, Ninewa, 553 kilometres from Baghdad, his father took him over the years to many doctors in several cities around Iraq, but to no avail. There was no treatment for his paralysis.

Salwan left school in the third year of primary school. Bullying and the conflict that happened in Iraq in 2014 were the main reasons he dropped out. Salwan and his family were displaced in 2014 to Al Hol camp in Syria, where they stayed for one year and three months. He was around nine years old then. He later moved to Al Salamiyah Camp in Iraq for displaced persons. Life in the camps was difficult. Salwan said, “Your home becomes a tent! Of course, life becomes difficult. Living was hard, and there were no job opportunities.”

In 2019, they returned to their home in Al Ba’aj to find it completely empty, as most of their belongings had been stolen. His family rebuilt the home slowly as time passed by. 

Over time, Salman grew older and when he became sixteen years old, he learnt to ignore the bullying of others. Not only that, he also began to accept his life and live with his disability. Salwan shared, “The older one becomes, the more self-awareness grows. In the past, when I was much younger, I often complained to my father about my condition. But when I grew older, I accepted the fact that it happened to me due to an illness and that it is from God.”

Salwan lives with his parents, a married brother’s family, and one single brother in one home. He is the youngest of all his siblings. During his active years, Eissa had a barber shop, and Salwan’s mother was a stay-at-home mother. Today, his older brother has taken over the barber shop and is the breadwinner for the family. These days, Salwan, now twenty-one years of age, is a stay-at-home young man. His poor financial situation does not allow him to start a small business of his own. Yet he is a very talented young man; he has a quality voice for singing or reading the Quran and can change his vocal tone to suit radio or advertisement purposes. Unfortunately, there are very few job opportunities in his small town.

Earlier this year, World Vision Iraq, through the Nexus Accelerator Fund Project, launched an intervention in Al Ba’aj and Sinjar, engaging 80 youth (42 women and 38 men) aged 18–29 in life skills sessions. These sessions were designed to build capacity and develop essential competencies that support youth development, including emotional regulation, active listening, problem-solving, empathy, interpersonal effectiveness, confident communication, decision-making, goal setting, and critical thinking.

World Vision Iraq’s team approached Salwan and informed him about the initiative and how he might benefit from it. Salwan met with Abdulhamid, Community Mobiliser at World Vision Iraq. He had recognised his face in the neighbourhood before but had never known him personally.

Salwan joined one of World Vision Iraq’s five-day Life Skills sessions. Salwan said in aN exciting tone, “Those were one of the most beautiful five days of my life.” He continued, “They were very kind to us and treated us as their children, not just as guests. The goal of the sessions was to benefit from the information and relate it to the reality of our lives, inside the home and outside, with family and with strangers. We learnt many things we didn’t know about.”

Abdulhamid said, “There was a sports gathering in Al Ba’aj, and one of the volunteers was registering names of youth who wanted to participate in the life skills sessions. Salwan was there, and he registered his name. At the training, on the first day, he was very shy and timid. He was often cautious in case someone laughed at him. He sat at the back of the session, didn’t participate, and wouldn’t come up to the stage to speak. On the second day, the trainer talked about bullying, and that motivated him. Salwan started getting closer to the participants, based on principles of respect and mutual understanding. He moved to the front seat, began participating, came up to the stage, and became persistent. He also started sharing his story. He spoke so naturally, and both the participants and the trainer encouraged him not to pay attention to those who bully him.”

Over the five-day session, Salwan began working on his self-development, got to know others in the session, made new friends, and learnt about decision-making. He also learnt about community engagement and how to choose a small business to start. His most memorable session was on self-development. Through this session, he was inspired to continue his journey of self-growth and to stand up against bullying.

Salwan said, “I didn’t know about self-development before, but now I’ve learnt to stand on my feet and become self-reliant. I am proud to be persistent, ambitious, and to build my future with my own hands.”

These days, Salwan no longer wants to extend his hand to others for help. He wants to build his path with his own hands. He dreams of opening his own small business. Yet financial difficulties remain a barrier.

The life skills sessions aim to help youth in the most at-risk communities build their confidence encouraging them to be strong, grow their ambitions, and take bold steps in their lives serving themselves, their families, and their communities, where youth are empowered, safe, and thrive.

Afnan, The Project Manager for World Vision Iraq, said on this project, “At Nexus Accelerator Fund, we are committed to strengthening community resilience by enhancing their ability to adapt and thrive. Through collaborative efforts, we work to break barriers and ensure that those in need can access easily to project services. Our main objective is focused on inclusion, we attempt to build a future where every child feels safe, supported, and empowered to grow in a sustainable environment.”

Through the Nexus Accelerator Fund, World Vision Iraq aims to reach out to 4,980 persons with variety of activities and interventions addressing the ongoing challenges faced by Iraq's most vulnerable populations in Ninewa and Thiqar, where years of conflict, displacement, rapid urbanization, and environmental degradation have deeply impacted communities. By focusing on building resilience, promoting climate adaptation, and promoting social cohesion, the program directly supports the most at-risk groups, including displaced persons, women, children, and people with disabilities.