Priscilla Hwang has always been a storyteller.
The first thing she ever said was a question. Her parents tell her fondly that she first said a Korean phrase, which loosely translated to “What is that?”
Hwang laughs as she brings up the memory. Now a Masters of journalism student at Carleton, the curiosity and passion she had as a child still drives her. However, she’s shifted focus—Hwang now prefers to pursue the stories of people in crisis.
“The Syrian crisis has been something on my heart for a long time,” she said. “I felt a tug telling me to do something, but I didn’t know what.”
This empathy drove her to live in refugee camps along the Lebanese border to teach these children English. Since 2010, Syria has been divided over the results of a civil war, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes and live in the overcrowded camps.
At first, Hwang said she was shocked when she entered the refugee camps.
“[The camps] were dirty, dusty, and dull,” she explained. “As a Westerner coming through for the first time I thought, ‘how could people live here?’”
It didn’t take long for her to find the answer to that question after a long night staring up at the Lebanese stars.
Over time, Hwang said the children started to confide in her.
She said she was particularly stricken by 13-year-old Omran’s story.
“During recess, we would be talking and laughing and all of the sudden his past would come up,” she said.
“He would start acting it out and saying ‘Oh, a bullet just whizzed past my ear!’ Just seconds later he would continue making jokes,” Hwang said.
Despite the hardship on refugees during the civil war, Hwang said there is hope in the air and eyes of the refugees in these camps.
“The conditions are horrible, but when you’re with people you love, it’s manageable,” she said.
“I was just lying there underneath all these stars with these people I have come to know. Dust is blowing everywhere. There are mosquitoes on my face. But I remember thinking ‘I could live here’,” she said.
All of these emotions left Hwang with a desire to change the way people are seeing the refugee crisis through the media.
“We see their pictures in the news all the time,” she reflected.
That’s why Hwang is hoping Canadians will see a new side of the crisis through her work. “It’s not 4000 or 10 million being affected by this crisis—it’s every one by one individual.”
Hwang has no plans to stop telling stories.
“Little stories have so much impact,” she concluded. “All I can do is share my experiences with others.”
Hwang said she has no idea what stories will tug on her heart next, and that all she knows is there are plenty more stories for her to discover.
