“My son is a doctor”, says Jad, his chest swelling with pride. No one believed he could achieve it 🥹
Jad Issa was born in Syria with Down syndrome. Many around him doubted that he could start a family, support a household, or be a father. He never doubted it.
He married Samira, they had Sader in 1997, and while war battered his village of Al-Bayda, Jad got up every day to work at a wheat mill. Every coin he saved had a fixed purpose: his son’s university education.
Sader traveled 50 km to Hama to study dentistry, supported by his father’s quiet effort. Today he is a dentist, and says he owes his strength and character to Jad’s upbringing. The man they underestimated ended up raising, against all odds, a professional who now proudly introduces him as his father.