Syrian students find an unlikely home, and hope, in Mexico

Renas Farid Alahmed is poking around his rundown, shared kitchen on a recent afternoon, trying to plan the first lunch he’s ever cooked for guests.  

“The kitchen is the one room in my family’s home in Damascus I can’t even picture anymore,” says Mr. Alahmed, who fled Syria seven years ago, as the war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups was heating up. He’d just graduated from high school, and his family was concerned he could be in danger after participating in anti-government protests.

“It’s not only me. It’s very strange to find a man doing anything in the kitchen in Syria,” he says.

Learning to lend a hand in the kitchen is one of many

Language breaks down wallsSaving wasted potential ‘I tell them to call me their Mexican mother’‘Mexico has opened my mind’