Freedom is “the right to be who you want”, Farzad Fazaeli | World Refugee Day

Seyedfarzad Fazaeli, or just Farzad as he says, is 24 years old and is originally from Iran. Farzad was already a 5th year Dental Medicine student in Ukraine when he was forced to stop his studies due to the war. “I was a dentistry student in Ukraine last year (5th year), then war happened, and I lost everything,” he shares.

But “then Católica helped me, it gave me hope again and, most importantly, gave me a goal to fight for,” Farzad, who is now a 3rd year Dental Medicine student at the Viseu Regional Centre of Católica, explains.

And that is why, on this World Refugee Day, he highlights the importance of being “able to take information and education and make it relevant to your own growth every single day.”

The future Dental Medicine Doctor confesses: “last year, I didn't have anything as freedom, and I even didn’t know what it meant”, but now “freedom means a lot, it is the right to be who you want and work where you want.”

Although Farzad stresses the importance of education, for him the simplest form of freedom is “having a roof and a fireplace next to me where I can read a book with a cup of coffee with my cat,” a pet which he adopted as an orphan kitten as he explains.

Farzad is now on the way to complete his Integrated Master’s Degree in Dental Medicine thanks to the Initiative for Students and Researchers at Risk of Universidade Católica, which has allowed him to restart his studies.

This initiative has already supported the studies of 15 refugees during its first year, in 2022/23, and will extend the opportunity to more 14 refugees, starting in September 2023.