person journey
Muzoon Almellehan: From Daraa to UNICEF Ambassador
Muzoon Almellehan packed her school books when her family fled Syria. In the refugee camp, she went tent by tent convincing parents to keep their daughters in school. She was 14 years old.
Confirmed2 chapters2013-01-01— 2017-12-31
How a 14-year-old Syrian refugee girl campaigned for education in Jordan's refugee camps and became a global voice for millions of displaced children.
01
Chapter 01custom01 / 02
Flight and the Refugee Camp: 2013
Muzoon Almellehan was born in Daraa — the southern Syrian city where the revolution began in March 2011. She was 12 years old when protests first broke out. By 2013, Daraa had become a front line. Her family fled Syria and crossed into Jordan.
When her family arrived at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan — one of the largest refugee camps in the world at the time, home to more than 150,000 people — Muzoon packed her school books. She later said this was a deliberate act: she understood that education was the one thing she could take with her that no one could take away.
In the camp, she noticed immediately that families were pulling their daughters out of school — either because they couldn't afford the fees, didn't see the point in a camp where there was no future, or because they were arranging early marriages for their daughters as a way of securing their future through a husband.
She began going from tent to tent. She was 14 years old. She talked to parents — sometimes the same parents multiple times — about why girls' education mattered. She explained what she had seen, what she believed. Some families listened. Some didn't. She kept going.
Her campaign attracted the attention of UNICEF workers in the camp. They began documenting what she was doing. Her story reached the outside world.
When her family arrived at the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan — one of the largest refugee camps in the world at the time, home to more than 150,000 people — Muzoon packed her school books. She later said this was a deliberate act: she understood that education was the one thing she could take with her that no one could take away.
In the camp, she noticed immediately that families were pulling their daughters out of school — either because they couldn't afford the fees, didn't see the point in a camp where there was no future, or because they were arranging early marriages for their daughters as a way of securing their future through a husband.
She began going from tent to tent. She was 14 years old. She talked to parents — sometimes the same parents multiple times — about why girls' education mattered. She explained what she had seen, what she believed. Some families listened. Some didn't. She kept going.
Her campaign attracted the attention of UNICEF workers in the camp. They began documenting what she was doing. Her story reached the outside world.
Confirmed(85%)Sensitivity: medium
02
Chapter 02custom02 / 02
From Camp to UNICEF Ambassador: 2015–2017
In 2014, Malala Yousafzai — the Pakistani education activist who had survived a Taliban assassination attempt — visited Za'atari camp and met Muzoon. The meeting between the two teenagers, both fighting for girls' education in different contexts of conflict, received international attention. The press began calling Muzoon 'the Malala of Syria.'
In 2015, Muzoon's family was resettled in Newcastle in the United Kingdom. She enrolled in school, learned English, and continued her advocacy work while completing her education.
In 2017, UNICEF appointed Muzoon as a Goodwill Ambassador — the youngest person ever to hold the title. Her appointment was announced alongside Malala Yousafzai, with whom she had built a friendship. She became a global spokesperson for refugee children's education, meeting world leaders, speaking at the United Nations, and testifying before government bodies in Europe and the US.
By 2019 — six years after fleeing Syria — she was completing her university degree in International Relations and Journalism in the UK, a student again, this time in a city far from the shelling, still advocating for the millions of Syrian children who had no such security.
The Syrian refugee crisis produced more than 5 million refugees by 2016. Studies found that significant numbers of Syrian refugee children were out of school in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Muzoon's campaign was a small act against an enormous problem — but her story gave the problem a human face that statistics couldn't.
In 2015, Muzoon's family was resettled in Newcastle in the United Kingdom. She enrolled in school, learned English, and continued her advocacy work while completing her education.
In 2017, UNICEF appointed Muzoon as a Goodwill Ambassador — the youngest person ever to hold the title. Her appointment was announced alongside Malala Yousafzai, with whom she had built a friendship. She became a global spokesperson for refugee children's education, meeting world leaders, speaking at the United Nations, and testifying before government bodies in Europe and the US.
By 2019 — six years after fleeing Syria — she was completing her university degree in International Relations and Journalism in the UK, a student again, this time in a city far from the shelling, still advocating for the millions of Syrian children who had no such security.
The Syrian refugee crisis produced more than 5 million refugees by 2016. Studies found that significant numbers of Syrian refugee children were out of school in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Muzoon's campaign was a small act against an enormous problem — but her story gave the problem a human face that statistics couldn't.
Confirmed(85%)Sensitivity: medium
Full Source List
01
The 'Malala of Syria': meet Muzoon AlmellehanThe Guardian
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