From Syrian make-up artist to refugee mental health worker in Iraq

Noura's story

Resilience
From Syrian make-up artist to refugee mental health worker in Iraq
A make-up artist learning new skills in Iraq
Becoming a refugee|Training|Supporting others

Noura is 26 years old and trained as a make-up artist in Damascus. Her life before the Syrian war began was comfortable and seemed secure. She enjoyed meeting with friends around the city and had ambitions for her career.
The growing violence in Syria made it harder and harder for Noura to go out of her home.
She stopped going to work to stay close to her family but she always believed she would stay inside Syria.
The courage to overcome
Today her life as a make-up artist feels very far away as she moves around the Domiz camp as an International Medical Corps outreach psychosocial worker.
Noura said of her work, “I feel strong when I succeed in helping a person overcome their fears. In our culture, it is not easy to seek psychological support because of false social beliefs. Encouraging an individual to do so is a first step forward to success.” Noura sees more and more people who take the initiative and ask her for help. “Young people are so desperate that they now have the courage to overcome the stigma of mental health,” she adds.