KOCHI: Uncertainty loomed large over his education when Haroon Kamal, born to a Yemeni-Keralite couple, was forced to leave his homeland during the war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2015.
His family decided to shift to Ernakulam. Seven years on, the 17-year-old Haroon scored 97% marks in the CBSE Class 10 examination as a student of Irshadhiya Public School at Koovalloor near Kothamangalam.
Son of Kamal Muhamed, a Kerala-based businessman-philanthropist, and his Yemeni wife Leila Nasher Mohamed, Haroon was a student of the Yemen Modern School in Sanaa, which follows an American syllabus. It was not easy for him to leave behind friends and family and the place where he was born and raised.
“Initially, things were difficult. I had no friends here and communicating with people was difficult since I did not know Malayalam and not everyone knew English. But gradually I managed to understand and speak Malayalam,” Haroon said.
The evacuation took place at such short notice from the ministry of external affairs that he couldn’t secure necessary documents from his school that would help him get admission in Kerala. He had to sit at home for a year after shifting to the state.
“The authorities were kind enough to support with a special letter for my child’s admission even though Haroon had lost a year,” said Kamal, an international business associate at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He had actively assisted the Indian Mission at Sanaa during the evacuation. Haroon, who has opted for the computer science stream has scored A1 in all subjects.