TEHRAN - Roya is a young girl whose radiant smile and sparkling eyes illuminate any room. Her face, with its soft, round features, bears the sun-kissed marks from her tireless work at brickworks. Despite being only nine years old, Roya has endured more challenges than many adults in her outlying town.

Born in Afghanistan, Roya arrived in Iran two years ago during the early stages of the Taliban's rise to power. Her journey to Iran was a grueling ordeal from the very beginning.

"We were at the airport, desperately trying to catch a flight to safety. American soldiers were also present, boarding their plane. Suddenly, amidst the chaos, one of the soldiers shouted and asked everyone to move. At that moment, I felt a searing pain in the side of my stomach," Roya recounts. 

She had been shot by an American soldier, but there was no time for her to recover from her wound. As Shias living in Kabul, she and her family felt the urgent need to flee the country before the Taliban seized control of the city.

Roya and her family's struggle to find a safe haven began soon after, with the young girl embarking on a two-month journey despite her fresh wound. 

Alongside her parents, younger brother, and two younger sisters, they were joined by another family of five before setting off for Tajikistan. However, their path was met with resistance at the border, forcing them to redirect their journey toward Uzbekistan. Unfortunately, they encountered similar challenges with border forces there as well.

Their next destination was even more perilous, as they had to entrust their lives to human smugglers. Roya's account of their treacherous journey toward Iran is both chilling and unsettling, yet she still manages to speak about her unimaginable hardships with a resilient smile on her face.

“Human smugglers accompanied us when we were trying to cross the border. It took us at least 5 days of walking to reach the Afghan border with Iran. We got no sleep and we only had one meal a day which usually consisted of hard bread and yogurt,” Roya recalled. 

According to the young girl human smugglers loathed kids. ”They didn’t like us because we slowed down the crew and the younger ones were always crying. They managed to convince some parents to leave their kids behind or they would grab toddlers and newborns and throw them like they were some sort of disposable. At one point we reached a valley which was filled with piled up bodies of dead children”.

Roya and her family endured immense hardships before finally arriving in Iran. They found themselves on the outskirts of the bustling capital, Tehran, where they had to work in brickworks to make ends meet. As an unregistered refugee, Roya believed that her dreams of receiving an education were shattered. However, fate had a different plan in store for her.

It was the children in her neighborhood who introduced Roya to Hanifa, a hidden gem of an unofficial school. The extraordinary institution is run by a group of passionate and dedicated female teachers in their 20s and 30s. At Hanifa, Roya discovered a world of possibilities. Here, she could learn to write, master mathematics, and even indulge in the art of handcrafting without any financial burden.

Hanifa relies solely on the generosity of charitable individuals to function. With limited funds at their disposal, the dedicated founders of Hanifa purchased Conex containers and transformed them into classrooms within a small rented space.  

Though the school continues to face financial obstacles in acquiring the necessary supplies and resources, it is adamant about making Hanifa work.

“We try to give these kids anything someone in their age but with a privileged background would have” Said Nastaran Daneh-Kar who is the founder of the Hanifa School. 

She and her fellow colleagues spend time with the children almost every day. Some 80 percent of the kids they work with have not been registered at any school; they either do not have the required documents or their families simply don’t care to put them in school. 

But Daneh-Kar believes she can make a change. She hopes to give the kids at her school something they can live with their entire lives.

“Here we don’t just teach these kids how to write and work with numbers. We try to give them confidence and teach them the abilities they must have once they enter society as adults. Hanifa is temporary but we want the results to be permanent”. 

When asked about why she has devoted her life to helping young refugees, Daneh Kar was kind of clueless as well. She told me she did not know why, but she felt deeply connected to the kids at Hanifa and her only wish in life was to one day see them in a better place.

Hanifa is more than just a school; it is a place that provides Roya and kids like her with a sense of belonging and support. The teachers not only impart knowledge but also nurture her dreams and ambitions. They recognize her potential and encourage her to strive for something great. 

“I want to become a teacher and do what others here have done for me,” said Roya. “They changed my life forever and I will always be thankful to them”.

Teachers here also wish for the same thing; they hope the students can grow up and replace their roles as teachers. They want the legacy of Hanifa to continue, so more children can learn to dream big and also find a place where they can feel at home.  

No matter what a kid’s background might be, every child on this planet must be allowed to choose what she or he wants to do with the life they have ahead of them. It is places like Hanifa that give deprived people, a second chance at life.