Looking back on the things I’ve been through, I’m not quite sure how I’m still surviving. I’m originally from Iran and lived a happy life with my son, daughter and wife. Over the last few years, a lot of things happened in my home country and because of religious and political reasons we were forced to flee. In 2019 we spent some time in France whilst en route to the UK and this is where the nightmare really began. The first tragedy was my son dying whilst we were making the long journey across Europe. I can’t begin to describe the amount of pain I felt and still feel to this day. Losing a child is something I wouldn't wish on anyone - but losing them whilst you’re far from your land, your people and your home is excruciating.
When I moved to the UK, I was put in a refugee detention centre whilst my fate was being decided. In the end I was granted refugee status but somehow I still felt empty. I didn’t have my family with me and I was still dealing with the trauma of losing my son and the many things we’d seen on our travels. In 2020 I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy and life once again became even more unbearable. I won’t even talk about my experience with chemo and how that affected my mind and body.
I keep asking myself why are all these things happening to me? One day I had a seizure and had to go to hospital for a few days to recover. When I came back, I found all of my stuff had been thrown out of the temporary accommodation I was living in at the time. I had to sleep rough for two months until I was moved into the temporary accommodation I'm in now. Even though I'm grateful for having a roof over my head, temporary housing is tough. Most things don't work in the house and it's not very clean. I don’t mean to give you my whole life story but I wanted to share a part of my journey in the hope that it’ll encourage anyone else who is struggling to keep going! If I can do it, so can you!
Starting over in a new country is really hard and it's been overwhelming trying to get my head around things like international and human law, the benefits system, housing and lots more. Another example is I've got a degree in computer science and a masters in physics but I can't transfer it here. Up until now, I'd been working as a data analyst and forex trader and even project managed teams across the world. Most people hate maths but I love it as I'm quite analytical and enjoy problem solving! At first I wasn't sure how I could put my skills to use but Beam and my caseworker have helped me to understand how we can overcome some of the blockers I'm facing.
I want to be independent and carefree again, I want to contribute to society and earn my keep! The first step is to get a job so I'm financially stable. I then want to complete my cybersecurity course so I can continue to build up my knowledge of new software, especially here in the UK. Getting this final accreditation will mean I'll have a better chance of getting a higher paid job in the future and hopefully another step closer to rebuilding my life again!