In Focus: Mohammad Abo-Hilal
09 February 2021
Mohammad Abo-Hilal, MD, fled the growing violence Syria in 2011. He and his family sought refuge in Jordan where he continued his work as a psychiatrist, supervising and training doctors and psychosocial workers to support young people affected by the war. Today Dr. Mohammad and his family live in Turkey where he continues to help Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons adapt to their new circumstances.
In this interview with REACH team member Bethany Dill, Dr. Mohammad shares his thoughts on trust, transparency, and mentoring in communities affected by conflict.
How have your personal experiences as a refugee transformed your professional career?
I am a psychiatrist by training. After the war started, I founded Syria Bright Future, a small NGO providing mental health services in Jordan where I had fled with my family. Now I am living in Turkey, where we supervise and train staff who work in Northwest Syria. I have been supervising psychosocial workers who provide psychosocial support for children in primary and elementary schools, doctors providing services for the general population, a youth empowerment project in its seventh year, and a social cohesion project.
“When talking or teaching about peace, it is important that differences appear. Otherwise, the sense of security is false, because problems are hidden.”
Supporting young Syrians has been an important focus of your work. What is one project that you see as particularly influential?
Schools are lacking in some aptitudes that would develop real, effective citizens. Students may succeed academically, but not be able to function in society. Some refugees are displaced because they or others in their country asked for their freedom, for real citizenship. As part of our youth program, we try to prepare them for this freedom. We guide participants in holding elections as a way to practice critical thinking. By engaging in this process, young people make choices and watch the results of those choices. What happens if they elect their friends? What happens if they elect someone based on other factors? This election exercise uses applied learning as participants ask themselves, “What is our responsibility as people who elect and are elected?” Young people need experience with processes like this and reflection on those experiences. This activity provides a healthy and safe environment for young people to differ in opinion and express their identities and ideas. This is the best way to learn how to live together.
When talking or teaching about peace, it is important that differences appear. Otherwise, the sense of security is false, because problems are hidden. To me, challenges in society are more concerning if no one dares to discuss and debate the issues. Providing young people these opportunities for discussion helps them to become better citizens in the future.
How does your background affect the way that you build trust with the young people you serve?
Trust is very tricky for Syrians in our situation. There are a lot of problems with trust in our environment; people in general have lost trust during the war. My strategy in building trust is to be transparent and to self-disclose about failure, not always your successes or talents. There is no shame in showing and discussing failure.
Although I am a medical doctor, I don’t only focus on medicine. I am interested in culture, and I use social media so young people and I can relate and find common ground. To build trust, we need to pay attention to the specific pressures that young people are under as they adjust to their new communities. As role models, we need to give them room to grow, offering our own example while allowing them to be different from us.
What is the value of mentoring relationships for young people in settings of uncertainty?
If you do real mentoring, you will have a new generation. A mentor should guide and not force. I wish that I would have had a mentor in my life when I was a kid, or even now. To have a mentor in the truest sense is very great. We lose the essence of mentorship if students are simply sent to an administrator or guidance counselor to be reprimanded. Effective mentoring relationships require time and commitment, with evaluation and adjustment along the way.
What is your favorite part of this work?
By shifting from a narrow medical approach, where you focus on symptoms, diseases, diagnosis and treatment, to a broader perspective of psychosocial support, where you consider the relationship between mental health and all other sectors and activities in the community, I have gained a greater understanding of society and life. I have enjoyed learning to approach problems from a broader perspective, to see connections, and instead of seeing only weaknesses, disease, and symptoms, to see strengths.