Meet Ali
Ali is an integral part of One Happy Family. He started as our Cyber Café manager in 2019 and has been with us ever since. He is held in very high regard by all of his colleagues and always seems to be helping someone; translating for a neighbour, visiting a sick friend, listening patiently when someone needs to talk, if someone needs him, he is always there.
Ali was born in 1982 in Iraq. He has a big family, with three brothers, three sisters and his mum. He has beautiful happy memories from childhood, of visiting his grandfather’s house, and his whole family swimming their days away in the small river close by. He studied at university but did not graduate as he had to start working to help his family. Since then, he has done many different jobs, from working in a restaurant to building houses. He was also in the military for 5 years and ‘finally’ opened his own business with computers. Although he was forced to leave this behind, its legacy lives on in OHF where he fixes and programs computers, mostly to be used for education in the camp and in local schools.
Ali loves listening to music and his big dream in life is to live in the Swiss mountains. He does not enjoy vegetarian food in the slightest and we often laugh at lunch times when we have very vocal updates of his hunt for the non-existent meat amongst his vegetables! We asked our volunteer Gabriella (who also took this lovely photo!) how she would describe Ali. “Ali is not just a colleague. When someone approaches him, he is found to be a very good listener, a person who is always ready to help and who passes on courage, hope and inner peace with his very personal wisdom as well.”
He had an operation which he has been waiting a long time for due to corona. We are very happy to tell you that everything went very well and he is now at home, recovering and recuperating, although as he has to try and limit his movement he is a little bored.
Thank you Ali for everything you do, both in and out of OHF. We hope that you achieve everything you want and deserve in life. We cannot wait to see you back in One Happy Family very soon!