Leaving Suriname

On the 28th of July 2015- the day I left Suriname for good - I remember that a few of my close family members brought me and my mom to the Johan Adolf Pengel airport. I left Suriname with mixed feelings. I was very excited and I could not wait to start a ‘new life’ in the Netherlands, but on the other hand it was very difficult to leave because I had to leave my family. Especially my dad and my grandfather. Also at that time, my family and I were dealing with a real tragedy which was like a nightmare.

When we finally arrived in the Netherlands in Den Helder, where I had been living for almost one and a half year my mother immediately decided to call all the universities where I had applied for, because I had not gotten any answers on my admissions.

Unfortunately, we were told that I did not meet the admission requirements because my high school diploma was not accredited. At that moment, it felt like everything was falling apart. I was so disappointed and angry, but I did not sit and grieve. I immediately went looking for other solutions, because I moved to the Netherlands with a goal: to educate myself!

In order to stay relevant, you have to stay open to new trends and keep educating yourself. You have to keep evolving. 

The one thing I kept in mind was that there are always multiple ways which lead to the final destination and that not everything goes as planned. I did not want to go down a level and do a year of secondary school again.

At one point I came into contact with the VU University Amsterdam, which offered me an interim year, VASVU, for International students. It was a kind of pre-university course, but much easier than expected because Dutch is my native language and most of the subjects weren’t new except for history. In that year I had to do a few subjects such as English, history and mathematics and also take the State Exams Dutch as a Second Language (Nt2).

Me & my former fellow students, the refugees, on graduation day

What I liked the most about the course was that I did the course with a lot of refugees from Iran and Syria who have been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Some of them had to leave their family behind and others escaped together with their families. It was interesting to get to know their culture and stories, but also very heartbreaking. I have so much respect for these people, because despite their situations they remained driven and worked really hard to reach their goals and make their families at home proud.

Abboud S. Torani, one of the refugees,I met during my interim year, VASVU, at VU University Amsterdam

" In 2013, I moved from Syria to the Netherlands because of the war in my country. It was very difficult to leave all my family, friends and memories. On the other hand, it was also hard to choose to stay in a war zone. When I left Syria, I got the feeling that I was losing everything. Later on, the feeling of losing became the feeling of missing. In the first period, lots of difficulties faced me. The stress of getting a permit to stay here, learning a new language and getting used to the new culture, weather, people etc. I was very thankful that I could stay, study and work in this country. I’ve got the same rights and duties of the citizens. I’m now a second year Business Administration student at VU University Amsterdam. I like the student life here, I met a lot of people, and the most important thing is that I got used to most of the things here in the Netherlands. I think that my future will be here in the Netherlands. I hope to graduate soon and find my dream job." - Abboud S. Torani