Walid Ikhlassi at Balamand University

Eric Reidy – Al-Jazeera English – 15 November 2014

When Walid Ikhlassi left his home in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2010 to attend university in Lebanon, his future appeared far more certain. He would complete his degree in architecture at Balamand University, located near the northern city of Tripoli, and return to Aleppo to work in his father’s civil engineering company.

“I already had an office there and everything,” Ikhlassi told Al Jazeera. “My future was planned.”

Four years later, his entire family has left Syria due to the civil war, and his father’s company no longer exists. As for Ikhlassi, “I [no longer] know what is going to happen next year.”

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