What training did you have before coming to Portugal and what are you doing?
In Syria I studied medicine and a year of heart surgery, after which I received the scholarship and came to Portugal. After finishing here the master’s degree in public health, I applied for an equivalence, the recognition of the medical diploma at the New University of Lisbon and I am currently working at the Central Lisbon Hospital Centre where I started the Common Year of General Training in Medicine.
At the end of this year will you have to choose the specialty in Portugal?
Yes, I prefer surgery that was what I was already doing in Syria, I thought of other specialties, but after returning to the hospital environment here I thought I really like surgery and I will try to get that.
And how is the transition to practice here at the hospital?
It’s a challenge. The hospital system is different from the one in Syria. Here the roles of nursing staff, nurses and doctors are different, there are different roles.
And how was the course here at the School of Public Health?
The course was good but having been my first year in Portugal, I had difficulties in Portuguese. The course was all in Portuguese.
But you speak very well.
Yes, but at that time I didn’t speak. But it also helped me to have classes in Portuguese. In the course they accepted me and wanted to help. I managed in the first year to pass all the subjects and then took two years to do the thesis because of Covid, as in the project I had to pass questionnaires to migrants.
And the thesis was in Portuguese?
No, I wrote the thesis in English. The defence was in Portuguese.
How do you view the support provided by APGES?
If it wasn’t for the scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to be where I am now. And having that support base was very important, because here we have no family... I have a sister. If we compare with the Portuguese students, they have that support base, they have family, they have homes and we did not have, so your support was very important. Faced with any accident or health issue, we always had support. And as far as my equivalence process goes, I couldn’t have done it without the scholarship.
Do you already have Portuguese nationality?
Not yet, I’m in phase one. Now it takes time.
It gives the impression that it will not return to Syria.
I don’t really want to go back. Because now the country is very different. I miss the past times more than the place, the current place. Because if I go back now, I won’t find what I had before. And what was there isn’t now. My sister is here. She’s working now. She came with the scholarship before me. She has a master’s degree in Data Science and is now working at EDP.
I had the goal of having a job here and in Syria, to be able to work a few months there, a few months here, because I saw people do it. But it would be very difficult.
Can you tell us a little about your path in Syria? Was it very difficult to access and do the course?
No, it wasn’t very difficult. I think it was like in every country, you had to have high marks to enter. The course wasn’t difficult at first. Then came the war when I was a sophomore. Hospitals were very busy and not very safe. There were emergency situations. And so we didn’t have enough practical experience. The theoretical part was normal, but the practical part was disturbed by the war.
Do you have friends here, where you live, in college, in the hospital?
In college I was the only one who didn’t speak Portuguese. But I managed to make some friends in the first year. My girlfriend is Portuguese which helps me a lot. And through these relationships with her family with friends of friends, and now in the hospital, I also met many people.
You found APGES through your sister?
Yes, yes. She found it through a friend and then I filled out the application. After two and a half years we got the scholarship. In 2018, in May.
And your sister is here in Lisbon?
Now she’s in Benavente. She got a house there. A house here in Lisbon is hard. She did an internship at a company and then they liked her. She enjoyed working there and continued.
Do you think there would be any suggestion for APGES to do more than it already does?
There isn’t really, especially in my situation. It helped a lot. I don’t know what could help more.
Thank you.
