My name is Ruaida and I am nine years old. I live in an official United Nations refugee camp in the village of Khanke in northern Iraq. I live there with my parents, my three brothers and my four sisters in a small tent.

The situation in the tent is very difficult for us. We hardly have running water and rarely electricity. In winter it is cold, in summer the tent heats up extremely and when it rains everything is wet and mud forms afterwards. One feels very uncomfortable.

When Islamic State fighters attacked our villages in the Shingal region in August 2014, I was just five years old. I can hardly remember our escape and life before that. My parents often told me that we lived a happy and simple life in Shingal. My father worked for the Iraqi army. He, too, had to flee Mosul in 2014 to escape the Islamic State.

For me personally, the Our Bridge education center is the perfect place for children. I could learn to read, write and draw there. For the future, I wish to be able to study. I would like to become an engineer to rebuild our destroyed cities.