Arab Mother's Day: a son's tribute
Fadi Kiblawi is a lawyer based in Tokyo, Japan, and son of Nada Kiblawi, a Palestine refugee, a founding member of the UNRWA Alumni of North America, and a successful businesswoman. He is a contributing guest writer to the Voices of UNRWA blog, where he pays tribute to his mother and all Palestine refugee mothers in honor of Arab Mother’s Day (March 21).
My mother, Nada Kiblawi, is truly an inspiration.
While today she is a thriving entrepreneur and business owner, her story begins in the humblest of circumstances. A Palestine refugee born in Lebanon’s Wavel camp, she was deprived of any semblance of childhood — no running water, no electricity, and no basic services, poverty, and the pain of dispossession surrounded her during her formative years.
Nada through the years
Yet she persevered, eventually earning a full scholarship to study electrical engineering at the American University of Beirut, where she graduated at the top of her class and became the first woman to earn an electrical engineering degree from the university. Years later, she received a position with a company in the United States and immigrated with three young children. She raised us — a monumental task itself— while excelling throughout her career in a field dominated by men.
The Kiblawi Family
None of this would have been possible without UNRWA.
Despite her dire circumstances, my mother was able to obtain a free education from UNRWA primary and secondary schools. But these schools provided her with more than just that; UNRWA gave her and generations of Palestinians hope and opportunity, a light at the end of the tunnel.
As a child, I never fully appreciated the unimaginable struggles my mother went through to give me the normalcy of freedom from worry. I expected the safety, stability, and comforts that defined my youth to be universal. It was not until I visited the refugee camps in Lebanon that I came to witness real adversity, and the Palestinian steadfastness (sumud) embodied by my mother. She did not win the lottery nor was she handed a golden ticket, but was given a chance through education. Only through that education was she — like countless other Palestinians that went through the UNRWA system — able to lift herself out of impossible circumstances. Palestine survives because of UNRWA.
My mom believes fiercely in the potential of the people still living in Wavel camp and refugee camps around the Middle East. Her involvement with UNRWA USA is one of the many ways my mom gives back to that community she came from.
Today, I honor her commitment to the education and betterment of her fellow Palestine refugees and ask you, dear reader, to do the same.