The Boy on the Bicycle My Life

You ready?

Zaatari is one of the biggest refugee camps in the world.

Hi, my name is Ahmed. I am 16 years old.

I am from Syria.

Ahmed lives here with nearly 40,000 other children who have fled

the war in their own country with their families.

I left Syria too because of the war and now I live in the UK.

But Zaatari refugee camp is in Jordan,

a country in the Middle East, next door to Syria.

While the people here are safe for now, they've had to leave

everything they love behind.

All the kids in this camp are trying to get by.

Mohamed works all day...

Ola is football mad...

KIDS CHEER

..and Ali likes to be teacher.

But Ahmed is known in the camp as the boy on the bicycle.

And he says his bike makes him feel as free as a bird.

Go, go, go!

Ahmed is going to be our guide around this massive camp -

it's over two miles across.

If I want to go from the end to the other,

it will take maybe one hour on the bicycle.

Three years ago this was just desert

and everything you see has been built from scratch.

The main street is called the Champs-Elysees -

just like the famous one in France!

There's lot of shops here.

There's even ice cream!

They make a delicious ice cream.

They go to school here.

They play here.

And they pray here.

But, unfortunately, they cannot leave.

And until they do, their futures are on hold.

Ahmed has lived in Zaatari refugee camp for three years

with his family.

They are very close.

This is my father.

He is a businessman and he teach me

everything I know.

His dad supports the family now by running a shop on the Champs-Elysees.

This is my sister, she is five years old.

When she grows up, she wants to go to the school.

These are his three brothers,

Khaled,

Omar,

and Mohamed.

His mum looks after them all in this storage container,

which they have tried hard to make their home.

Let me show you around the house.

This is the kitchen,

and also there is a bathroom inside.

This is my bedroom. I share it with my three brothers.

We sit here every day.

Ahmed used to have his own bedroom back in Syria.

They used to have a beautiful house and garden.

This is my garden, here and here and here.

This is the vegetables.

You can see the pepper here, and this is the jasmine tree.

It's so beautiful once it's grown-up and it will be so nice.

The smell is really so cool.

I miss everything in Syria.

Syria is my home and I will never forget it.

Syria is always in his mind, even though he is now living so far away.

You can see the amazing views there, the waterfalls

and some cherry trees

and some pineapple trees.

You can see a lot of things there.

But if you look here you can...

It's only just a desert here.

The family didn't want to leave but the war forced them out.

When we were there, our neighbours they say,

"You have to leave Syria as soon a time as you can.

"Cos they are going to destroy everything you have."

Syria mean to me everything.

It's the home, it's more like a mother for us.

This is one of Zaatari refugee camp's football teams.

Girls and boys are not allowed to play together

so the girls have their own league!

THEY CHEER

Ola is 12, and is the team's striker.

# I am the champion and you're gonna hear me roar... #

-TRANSLATION:

-Football is the best sport. It means everything to me.

I play football here with all my friends.

I love football.

I love it very, very much.

Ola's team has won three of the last four tournaments.

She supports Manchester United!

THEY CHEER

Great goal, Ola!

Ola lives in her storage container with her mum, sister,

little brother and her twin baby brothers.

They all sleep in this one room together.

Ola's whole family - including her cousins,

aunts and uncles and grandparents -

walked across the desert from Syria to get to safety.

When the bombing started Ola's family grabbed everything

they could carry from their homes in Daara.

It was so hot and difficult to walk, they couldn't keep

hold of their favourite things and they left them in the desert.

By the time they got to Zaatari camp they had nothing left but water.

Let me show you around my neighbours.

This is my auntie's house.

And this is my other auntie's house.

This is our neighbour's house.

Ola's dad came with them from Syria

but he has made his way to Germany and is now in a refugee camp there.

It's hard for the family to be separated.

I help Mum with as much as I can with everything around the house

and with my brothers.

I love them all very much.

Ola relies on her friends in the camp to help her too.

I have lots of friends here in the camp.

They all support me, especially if I'm sad or depressed.

In the camp, all the kids have had to leave

everything behind, including their toys and technology.

So here they've come up with new ways to entertain themselves!

# Express yourself

# Express yourself! #

My brother now he would like to show some moves he learned.

OK, go!

I've been given my own camera by CBBC to film my friends

and family at home.

I want to show you a dance, the moonwalk by Michael Jackson.

# Who will dance on the floor in the round... #

I'm going to my English class

in the course of volunteer

and you can see my books.

This is my notebook.

This is my English book.

Back in Syria, I loved school

and that's where I learnt to speak English.

'Do you think I'm any good?'

I miss you.

I miss you.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

-So much.

I still love school now and I go every day.

There are only nine schools in the camp

and there are 18,000 children enrolled in them.

It's so busy!

Girls study in the morning and boys go in the afternoon.

They are good teachers.

They may say how you can speak English,

I will make you a doctor in the future.

I hope so.

School here is not like anything at home.

It can be crazy!

RINGS BELL

The wind is picking up.

A desert storm is on its way!

The situation here is so miserable for the Syrians.

They all want to get back to their homes.

Everyone must evacuate.

This is my teacher, he teaches me science.

The winds can go at 25mph,

it swirls the sand around and blows it up your nose and into your mouth.

It's so hard to breathe!

You have to get home and lock yourself in for safety.

We are in the middle of a difficult dusty storm in camp.

The situation here is so difficult for the children,

nobody can breathe well.

The sky really is that red.

It's too much, I can't see.

If you moved away a couple metres, you will disappear.

These terrible sandstorms happen a lot

and so everyone knows how to protect themselves.

After a sandstorm, there is always rain.

You can see the rains,

maybe you can hear it, the noise.

Already started cleaning the house.

And with rain comes flooding.

These are not proper houses, so the water just comes in.

This is my neighbour on his roof

and he tried to fix his caravan

because the dent it's...

..so, so bad.

In this situation, nobody can survive.

A lot of dust storms happen.

After it, rain storms.

After, you can see the thunder storms and the hurricanes.

Nobody can live here in this situation.

But the younger kids always try to find some fun in it.

KIDS SCREAM CHEERFULLY

I love riding my bike.

And I am very lucky to have it.

Ahmed often goes to get bread from the bakery on the Champs-Elysees.

There's a lot of shops here, like some dessert shop,

some vegetable and fruit shops,

and there's a salon for man and salon for women.

Everything in the camp is brought in. It's all for sale.

A lot of children work here because they have a special situation.

A lot of them, they lost their parents in the war.

Some of them, he's my friend, he lost his father in the war.

One of them, his father got shot and his father can't work.

He was the first in his class in the math,

in the...everything, he was genius.

But because of the situation,

he start working to feed himself

and his family all he can.

Ahmed's friend had to drop out of school to go to work

and there are plenty of kids doing jobs in the camp.

THEY SPEAK IN ARABIC

Mohamed is 12 and he's been working in the bakery for over two years.

-TRANSLATION:

-When I came to the camp I started straightaway.

They taught me how to make bread.

Every day I made around 700 or 800 loaves.

Mohamed works seven hours a day and he earns £2 for that.

When I work here, they treat me like a younger brother.

Sometimes they let me take seven or eight loaves home.

But I just take whatever I'm allowed.

His father is still in Syria and the money Mohamed earns

supports his mother and eight brothers and sisters in the camp.

His wages mean they always have food.

My father is in Syria.

Every time he comes to the border, they tell him it's closed

and they turn him back.

I'm sad because my father's not with us.

Mohamed hasn't been to school since he was he was in Syria

and he doesn't expect to go back.

My dream was to become a maths teacher but it didn't work out.

3,000 boys in the camp have stopped their studies to work

to support their families,

but up the road, a different kind of work is going on.

Meet Ali.

THEY SPEAK IN ARABIC

Hello, my name is Ali.

I am 12 years old. I am from Syria.

I live...I live in Zaatari...

reg...uh...

-Re-fu-gee.

-It's so good!

Re-fu-gee camp, re-fu-gee camp, re-fu-gee camp.

I live in Zaatari refugee camp.

A lot of the kids want to learn English

because they hope it will help them get a job in the future.

So, clap your hands.

So Ali gives a few friends some extra lessons, Zaatari style.

-ALL:

-A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P,

Q, R, S, T, U, V, W... What's W?

-HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC

-W!

W.

-We.

-KIDS:

-We.

-We.

-We.

-We always.

-Always.

-Do.

-Do.

-We always do.

-We always do.

-Our.

-Our.

-Homework.

-Homework.

17,000 children of school age in the camp

do not go to school.

That's half the kids there!

Kareem.

It's such a shame because they all loved school in Syria.

-Kareem.

-My name is Kareem.

-WHISPERS:

-Kareem, this is...

-This is...

-My.

-..my flower.

-Friend.

-Friend.

Ali tries to teach his friends once a week.

They all really look forward to it.

Come on, you.

Ali has been living in this camp for two years with his family.

This is father and mother and brother and brother.

Come inside my house.

Ali's dad helps all his children to study.

But Ali really is his star pupil.

They send him to two different schools a day.

SPEAKS IN ARABIC

His dad would like to get Ali a private tutor

but that's unlikely here in the camp.

He says that many parents shed tears because their children have

to go to work to support the family rather than go to school.

And that's something that Ali's parents are trying to make sure

doesn't happen to him.

Ali's mum supports him all the way. She knows how high his hopes are.

Ali wants to become a doctor just like Ahmed does.

But unless they leave this camp, that's not going to happen.

If you ask any family here or any camp,

they will give you the same answer.

If you tell them, "What do you want for the future?"

Or, "What is your hopes for the future?"

"I want to secure a future for my children, that's all."

But if we don't have a good school,

how we are going to make the dreams in our minds happen?

There is something else that's different about their lives here too.

This is the wedding shop here,

because a lot of people, they get married so quickly.

There is a wedding in the camp every week, sometimes two.

These dresses aren't made in the camp,

they bring them in like everything else.

Families have to save up to buy them.

Arrive at 16, 17, maybe 18, they will get married.

-TRANSLATION:

-Lots of girls get married young in the camp

but I think it's wrong.

I want to get an education and a job before I get married.

Once they are married, the girls have to leave school.

Ola goes to her school every day

and you can see how keen the girls are to learn.

They are so competitive!

When I grow up, I want to be an architect

so that when we go back to Syria,

I will be able to rebuild Syria and have a happy life there.

Look outside, another storm has arrived.

It's pouring down.

# Run, run, run away! #

Ola needs to get home fast

because she's calling her dad in Germany tonight.

We don't have a mobile phone

so we call our dad from our auntie's house every week.

We tell him we miss him a lot and we ask him,

"When can we see you again?"

Ola's uncle has come around with his phone to make the call.

My best dream is to be with my father and live with my father.

It's not enough just to speak with him.

We want to see him, sit with him and laugh with him.

This is the future we want.

Ola's family is one of many that have been broken up

by the war in Syria.

-ALL:

-Hey!

All around this camp there are kids doing the peace sign.

The younger ones think it means "cool"

but the older kids know what it really means,

that it's a way of asking for peace.

The Syrian war began in 2011.

In Zaatari refugee camp, nearly 100 new people arrive every day.

But some people want to leave, and this is very difficult.

To get out, you need a permit, which is like a kind of passport.

You can get it at this office but it's always very busy.

I came down to apply a permit,

I would like to leave the camp and visit my cousins in Amman.

Ahmed's cousins live outside the camp in the capital city,

and he's wanted to visit them for ages.

But without a permit, he can't go.

Ahmed is going inside to join the queue.

Sadly, I couldn't get the permit today.

I feel helpless. This is the first time I came here

and apply for a permit to leave the camp.

And it was more than a disaster for me.

I'm not going to visit my cousins on the outside.

He's very disappointed.

So he's heading to his favourite place on the Champs-Elysees.

The manager of this songbird shop is 18-year-old Tariq.

He says they remind him of home

because here in the camp there are no flowers, no trees and no birds.

This is my favourite one.

-HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC

-Music.

His name is Music because he still sings every day.

You like to see egg of a bird?

The most expensive pair of songbirds is £50,

so Ahmed couldn't afford them.

But he comes here to see them whenever he can.

I feel the same feeling like him

because he looks

up and down and around him.

He says, "What is this?"

It's only just a cage for him.

He would like to fly away and be free

but he can't because he's in a cage right now.

I'm in the same situation as him

because I think I am in a cage in this camp,

I don't have a chance or space for me to fly

and just spread my wings.

One day, I'm going to fly out of this camp.

There is one last place Ahmed would like you to see.

This part on the edge of the camp is special to me

because you can see Syria from here.

In that direction, there is my home, it's my beloved Syria.

The last time I've been in Syria was 2012.

Because I came here the next year.

That was the last time I have seen Syria and my home.

My house is destroyed because of the...

bombing and

the blowing there.

My house now is destroyed.

I don't have any house now.

We have hopes to return to Syria.

Oh, Syria, I miss you so much.

Look at me.