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Back to SearchA decade on, the Syrian civil war has caused the largest refugee crisis in history. Since the war began, Syria – and Syrian families – have been torn apart and faced unimaginable adversity. For those who have been lucky enough to escape, starting a new life in a new country brings another set of challenges. CareerSeekers intern Kinda Assayegh reflects on her life in Syria, her arrival in Australia and the support she gained from GHD and the CareerSeekers program.
Imagine waking up in a hospital bed, unable to feel your legs and back, with your own face unrecognisable with bruises and stitches. This was the ordeal I faced in 2014. As I lay there, I recognised my mother at my side, and asked her, am I paralysed? She said no, but I knew from her terrified look that she wasn’t sure of the truth.
I soon learned that I had suffered a concussion, which thankfully limited my awareness of what had happened: I was one of 10 people out of 40 who miraculously survived a terrorist attack on the bus I was travelling on to Damascus, Syria earlier that day.
It took me a month to walk again, slowly but surely, and I also learned to embrace the ‘survivor’ identity. Three months earlier I had declined an offer to work for the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands because I was unable to take my parents and brothers with me out of my homeland of Syria, where my story began.
Growing up in Syria’s capital, Damascus, I completed a Bachelor of English Literature and a Master’s degree in Interpretation. Graduating the top of my cohort in 2009, I started work immediately for the European Union Delegation, followed by the Jesuit Refugee Service and then the United Nations (UN), with responsibilities in interpretation, public relations, communication, security and reporting.
The Syrian civil war erupted in 2011 making every day of survival an accomplishment. I lived with rockets falling everywhere like rain, explosions, shootings, bullets flying in the street and even into our living room at times. I experienced the loss of loved ones and at one point I was trapped in a bathroom for 13 hours while ISIS fighters 400 meters away tried to infiltrate the capital, and with army soldiers in the kitchen. Things continued to escalate to the point where mortars fell daily on our neighbourhood, making life completely unbearable.
Working for the UN, I declined multiple opportunities to work abroad, but ultimately, I felt that I had no other option other than to fly with my mother across the border to Erbil, in neighbouring Iraq. I rented an apartment and found a way to bring my father and brothers across. There, we became refugees – a new identity I struggled to accept. In Syria I had been helping Iraqi refugees, and now six years later I was a Syrian refugee in Iraq.
Not long after the move to Erbil I accepted a role as a news anchor for a TV station, as it was one of my long-postponed dreams. In 2018, my family and I applied for a Humanitarian Visa, and a year later arrived in Brisbane, Australia, but this time all together. We then moved to Sydney.
Initially I was busy settling down with my family in Sydney and completing a TAFE course. I applied for many jobs, only to get rejections mainly due to my lack of local experience. While volunteering with a non-government agency to support refugees, I heard about the CareerSeekers program. Two months later I participated in a CareerSeekers work readiness workshop and was connected with GHD to start my internship in the Sydney Marketing team in March 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, putting my internship on hold after only two weeks with GHD.
I engaged in further courses and applied for other jobs in vain, but thankfully my internship was resumed a year later in 2021. I’ve since had the opportunity to work on marketing and communication activities such as events, thought leadership pieces, award submissions, social media articles and client check ins. My internship resulted in a further six-month contract with GHD, where I’ve been able to improve my skills further.
I’m very grateful to Australia for providing a safe haven for my family and I’m thankful to GHD for giving me the chance to be part of a business that truly walks the talk. As someone who has worked with well-known international organisations and in sensitive and challenging environments, I’m genuinely impressed by the work culture here, our people and our values and commitment to clients and employees alike.
In my life so far, I’ve learned that another day isn’t always guaranteed, and that embracing change is an imperative and key to growth. I’m so excited for this new chapter of my journey to continue to learn and contribute and grow with my wonderful team at GHD in the gift of today.
As part of our commitment to inclusion and diversity, GHD was one of the first companies in Australia to partner with non-profit organisation CareerSeekers, which creates employment opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom held professional careers in their country of origin. Since the program started, we have proudly welcomed more than 40 CareerSeekers program participants across our offices in Australia.