Ahmad From Palestine
Categories: Interview
Transcript
Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders
About Ahmad
Ahmad is a highly skilled Palestinian UI/UX designer with over five years of experience in crafting seamless digital experiences. His expertise spans dashboard UI/UX, prototyping, wireframing, and interactive design, utilizing industry-leading tools such as Figma, Webflow, Framer, and AI-driven technologies. His approach combines research, usability testing, and innovative automation to create high-performing digital products. He is passionate about leveraging technology to build smarter, more accessible digital experiences. Follow him on LinkedIn. Ahmad also actively contributes to the Stories Without Borders Instagram account.
Interview Transcript
Brief Glossary
There are certain terms and phrases in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.
Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah
InshaAllah: God-Willing
JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well
Du’a: A form of prayer
Beginning of Transcript
Fariah:
Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you. Hello everyone. Welcome to Stories Without Borders. A platform to share the stories of refugees in Canada. Today we’ll be interviewing Ahmad to learn more about his life experiences. Ahmad is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza and is a talented Senior UI/UX Designer, App Developer and Expert in Figma, Webflow, No-Code & AI-Driven Design.
Ahmad, thank you so much for being with us today. Your journey is very inspiring, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to learn from you. To start, is there a particular story or experience from your life that stands out to you—something meaningful that you’d like to share?
Ahmad:
I’m 36 years old and based in Gaza. My home country is Palestine, Gaza.
Actually there is not something very special about my story or something charming, but I will say a quick story about ourself, our family and how things came to be in this country, in Canada.
So we have been before in Gaza, during the conflict in Gaza. We have faced many issues and many hard days during the war. We lost our jobs, we fled from our home, from our Northern Gaza, and we fled more than five or six times during the war. We are struggling to survive for more than 50 days long in the war.
But hopefully thanks God, we successfully managed to escape from Gaza, me with my family,
my wife and my two small kids and also my mom and second family of my brother. We have escaped, managed to escape to get to the Egyptian Gazan border in Rafah. But in order to make this happen and succeed, everyone of us pay more than five thousand dollars per person. We began during this issue, we managed and launched many fundraising campaigns. So we can collect the funds and get the fees for the traveling.
When we arrived in Egypt, we have lived there for about five months and our brother, the big brother, was our uncle. He actually has a PR in Canada. And he successfully managed to invite us as a second family to be living in Canada.
But as you can see, as you can know, the refugee, the newcomer of anyone who came outside from Canada, especially from crisis areas, like Syria, Gaza, Lebanon. These, we have seen difficult days. We have lost many money. We have lost two things, especially including our home, our houses, our jobs. Hopefully thanks God, Alhumdulillah, we didn’t lose anyone from my relatives, close relatives. But in this war, actually everyone loses something. Maybe some money, maybe one of his friends, one of his family.
So when I come here in Canada, we were facing many things. First of all, Canada will give support, financial support for refugees or for newcomers.
But for us, for Gazan country, for Gazan newcomers, that does not include any assistance financially from the country.
So that’s the first thing, it’s too hard for us because in order to make my brother successful to get to evacuate us from Gaza to Canada, he was making a contract to the Canadian government that he will be successfully making the anchor. So he will, on his budget, he will move us from Gaza to Canada. So there is no special financial support or something like financial aids from the country.
We are struggling here to search for jobs. Thanks God we have a small house here from my aunt. My aunt stay there in Canada from 2000, so like 20 years ago.
We have been here in Canada, living in their house, temporary until we find a job so we can pay the rental lease.
So one of the most hardest issues or things for newcomers, refugees. One is finding the job, first thing. The second thing is language. So it’s very new for us. And we will get used to it in the ongoing days. Third, we don’t know if we can get back to our country, back home, in Gaza or not because the situation there is not stable, too difficult. There is no safety there, no safety, no future, no anything of hopes.
So, these circumstances in Gaza is catastrophic and too hard. There is no water, no healthy water, no safety, no healthy food or canned food. And now the closing border is closed and there is no financial aids coming for Gaza. So we are here in Canada, temporarily, we don’t know if we can stay there in Canada. How long will be staying? How much will be the ceasefire, will hold in Gaza or live in Gaza.
Inshallah, we make always ceasefire and war will not continue.
So this is the first thing, excuse me for sometimes my, I can’t express my feelings about something in second language because I’m not used to it.
Fariah:
You’re doing a very good job. Thank you. Thank you so much. Jazakamullahu Khairan. That’s a very powerful and important experience. And thank you so much for sharing and I appreciate you opening up and it’s amazing how resilient and strong the Palestinian people are.
The next question would be how did your faith support you during your experience?
Ahmad:
About our faith. First of all, thank God, Alhumdulillah, we are Muslim and we have strongest faithful case in the world, the Palestinian case. It’s a [Arabic word], I don’t know what’s that meaning in English, but anyway. God was support us and God was behind us.
We are coming through these difficult circumstances because we are the real people of the land. We don’t have doing anything wrong.
At the same time also we are not superheroes. We are just normal people, normal families, we have normal dreams, some goals, not too special, we need to live a normal life but suddenly this thing was the whole setup from the beginning. The genocide come with a real immigration. They will force us to migrate. That’s why they bombed every area in Gaza Strip and forced our small group to leave to certain areas.
So we are finished from the northern Gaza, and for your safety, move to the middle of the Gaza,
and then bombed, there is no safety here. And then tell us move to the east, the south, the Gaza, towards Rafah, and Khan Younis. And now, Rafah is invaded until this time, it’s outside of the ceasefire deal. There is no safety there, in Rafah, also in the North Gaza, there is also no safety. So we keep lifting our feet from area to area, from area to area.
That’s why we are, until this time, after saved by God, we are alive until this moment because of du’a, we were making du’a every day at every prayer, so this is why I think make us live until now.
Fariah:
That was a very amazing answer. Thank you so much again. Jazakamullahu Khairan, that’s very inspiring, Ahmad. And it’s beautiful how your faith can provide us with strength. And thank you so much for sharing that. You touched upon this before. And if you have anything else to add to this, my next question would be, how is it like living in Canada as a refugee?
If you have anything else to add from your previous answer?
Ahmad:
Nothing special here. It’s a new experience for me, for my family, because it’s a foreign country
that’s talking another second language, not Arabic, it’s not a Muslim also.
It’s hard at the beginning, because of the different culture, different some subject of the life perspective. Things are not easy at the beginning. Because life here is too much high, too much high in prices. We are discovering this country day after day and I can’t give you a full experience of being a new refugee here because I have been there in Canada from four to five months. I have been there from the last October ‘24.
So I can’t give you the full experience because I don’t live here there too much.
Thank God, luckily there is some relative around me. There is my two aunt here, live beside us in the normal distance not too far, because I’m London, Ontario right now. Also I have my uncle live there and some friends lived at Canada. So I don’t feel like too much apart from my home, like Al Qurba.
I will get used to it day by day and the next month after one year or two years at least because things that needs to take that much time to make us feel like a Canadian citizen or someone who have experience in this country.
We are just exploring and discovering many things. We can’t decide if this country would be great for us or not, let the days judge on this. .
Fariah:
Thank you very much. Jazakamullahu Khairan. Adjusting to a new country is a very complex journey. And I appreciate you sharing both the challenges and the positive moments.
And before we wrap up, is there anything else that you’d like to share whether about your journey, your hopes for the future or anything else on your mind?
Ahmad:
Yes, I need one thing actually. I’m facing some trouble getting jobs in Canada here because the criteria is too high and certification and the experience they need. So I have a small request from you if you can help me that would be amazing. If you can give my resume and send it to your company, your work. I was checking your profile, you are working on some AI or artificial intelligence field. This is my favorite part at this time.
I’m using to designing and developing apps using AI without using any codes. So I have too many experience in this field and also for AI, if you can make a recommendation for me, taking my resume, that will be helpful
Fariah:
So Ahmad, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Take care and Ramadan Kareem.
Ahmad:
InshaAllah. Wa Alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh