Abdulrahman Azizi

Syria

Each and every day, Abdulrahman Azizi works hard to achieve his greatest dreams and ambitions. His story includes some moments of defeat but Abdulrahman decided early on to take his future into his own hands – standing up and meeting his challenges head on.

In the Turkish city of Bursa, the Azizi family had to find shelter to escape the Syrian war.

In Syria, Abdulrhman received only nine years of education, and although the war tore the pages of his books, he longed to tip the scales and obtain a certificate to support whatever the future might hold. He aimed for personal growth, collecting general information, learning about current affairs, and engaging in conversations, whether private or public, along with personal experiences and gaining scientific knowledge.

He says while laughing: “If you asked YouTube about me, it would definitely have known me.”

He admits that all the money he earned was spent on an internet connection to watch YouTube videos in all fields, including international news and documentaries. 

Thanks to his widespread interests, he discovered that the world, with its different sectors, ideas and research, is heading toward technology and data. The more he saw and learned about coders, and the more he followed the career paths of innovative coders he admired, the more he desired their life and “the keys to life” they possessed.

Without much thought, he decided to learn coding, but quickly faced two obstacles: money and time. He had little money to speak of and spent most of his time working as a tour guide for Arab tourists.

“The initiative of One Million Arab Coders was the hand that lifted me”, Abdulrahman says. He learned coding for free and at a time that suited him, lying under a tree waiting for tourists to arrive, or on the bus heading to the airport to meet them at night.

Abdulrahman is proud of the certificate he earned in Android applications, as it is his first victory in the midst of very difficult circumstances.

He unlocks his phone quickly to unveil the application he is currently developing. It is an Arabic application that targets heart patients and forms a daily guide for them so that their beating heart will not let them down.

“After war, many in my family still live under a threat that their hearts can no longer bear”. Working as a freelance coder, Abdulrahman says it is a victorious achievement, making up for years of deprivation.