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Rasha’s story: displacement hasn’t stopped this teacher from finding (and delivering) hope
March 11, 2026
Our goals:
- Promoting peace
- Providing opportunity
- Countering extremism
Teacher Rasha Yusef fled Iraq in 2022. She has found a new home, job, church family, and school for her children at Marka Church and Education Center in Amman, Jordan.
Rasha and her family have walked a long road together. ISIS swept through northern Iraq in 2014 targeting Christians like Rasha, and her father died soon after. Shaken, Rasha’s mother and siblings left Iraq, emigrating to Jordan and Australia. Only Rasha was left in Iraq, raising two kids with her husband, and without a network of extended family for support. Feeling isolated, the family lived in fear of ISIS’s return to their region.
In 2022, Rasha’s family finally decided to leave Iraq for Jordan.
“We didn’t feel safe and kept moving from place to place,” Rasha said. “My kids couldn’t live normal lives. They were fearful every day. My husband and I decided we needed a safe life for our kids, a good future for them.”
Like many other displaced Iraqi Christians, Rasha had heard of a place called Marka Church in Amman that welcomed refugees, helped them find work, and provided a school for their children. When they arrived in Jordan, Rasha and her family began attending the church and making connections.
A Marka-style welcome
“The pastor and Miss Dawlat Hijazeen, [the principal who also attends the church], felt like home to me,” Rasha said. “Everyone surrounded us with love. Miss Dawlat knew about my situation and asked if I could help out at the Marka school for Iraqi kids.”
Rasha accepted Hijazeen’s invitation, and now teaches five, six, and seven-year-olds at Marka. She says Marka truly is home – the first place that opened its doors to her.
“We [Iraqis] have no other place to go in Jordan and feel welcomed like we do at Marka,” she said. “Having come to Jordan as a refugee myself and then seeing Iraqi kids without hope or a future, this gives me the energy to go to work every day. I want to make them feel like themselves again.”
Showing kids their value
Rasha’s goal is to help children feel loved and cared for, and to educate them so they can make something of themselves and their futures, wherever they go in the world.
She says her students are as dear to her as her own children.
“They sometimes forget to call me Miss Rasha,” she laughs. “They [accidentally] call me Mom, and that makes me happy.”
In fact, both of Rasha’s actual children, Angel and Angelina, also attend Marka. Angel’s favorite subject is English, and Angelina’s is math. They, too, are excelling at Marka.
Principal Dawlat Hijazeen says the school is thriving and the student body is growing, with an increasing number arriving not only from the area directly around the school, but also from neighborhoods across Amman. Marka recently welcomed new four-year-olds, allowing the school to open a second preschool class.
The school also serves a considerable number of dedicated teen students, who Hijazeen says “don’t want to miss a day”. Marka runs year-round by the request of students and their parents.
“[Iraqi teenagers] have nothing to do in Jordan, so the school and church are places for them to do something useful; it gives them purpose,” said Hijazeen. “Parents tell us their kids found themselves at Marka. They believe in themselves now, and they know their value.”
This makes all the work worth it.
Displaced teachers like Rasha have found their purpose, too. Recently, Hijazeen witnessed Rasha leaving her classroom, smiling broadly with tears in her eyes. Hijazeen asked her what had happened.
“It’s my twin students, Yusef and Yujeen,” Rasha replied. “They learn differently, so I was putting in extra time to bring them to the level of other students. Today, all my hard work paid off. The boys passed their exams! They are now at the same level as the other kids.”
As any teacher knows, there are good days and bad days.
“It’s their first time going to school at ages five to seven, and sometimes they arrive with a bad attitude,” Rasha said. “But they feel how we love them, they start to have fun, and they learn new things. Even if a day starts out rough, when I say it’s time to go home, they ask: ‘Can we stay another hour?'” •
Thank you for your support of this important work in Jordan. Please keep TSI’s partner schools in your prayers as we launch into a new year of showing God’s love to refugee children through schools!
Rasha with her children, Angelina and Angel.
TSI’s latest video from Jordan
Marka Education Center in Amman, Jordan
""Having come to Jordan as a refugee myself and then seeing Iraqi kids without hope or a future, this gives me the energy to go to work every day. I want to make them feel like themselves again."
- Rasha Yusef
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