Getting to Know Syria Beyond War and Crisis - In Conversation with May Alherek A Whole New World

For today’s episode, I’m in conversation with May Alherek, May was born and raised in Salamieh, Syria, and is currently based in Ottawa, Canada. May just completed her master's degree in environmental engineering in Canada with her thesis research on sustainable solutions to provide safe drinking water for low-income communities living in remote areas, such as refugees living in camps. From my conversation with her, I could sense a lot of pain in her voice as she was telling her story, yet a lot of resiliency, courage, and positivity. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the massive earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey earlier this month. I deeply empathize with the people there and hope everything goes well. 

I hope this episode helps you look at war-torn countries from a new perspective. My goal for this episode was not to dwell on war, and crisis because there’s already so much narrative available for that. I just wanted to get to know Syria from a perspective of its culture, history, and people. So that’s why I tried doing here. Hope you are able to enjoy this episode.