Wadad Elaly
Recently Resettled Syrian Refugee
Wadad Elaly was born in Homs, Syria where she had a happy childhood. In 2012, her father was killed by a sniper by the Syrian regime forces. Later that year, her neighborhood was under severe shelling, forcing the family to move from house to house. They became internally displaced until they moved to Lebanon in 2013, where they registered through the UNHCR as refugees. After 18 months of a lengthy vetting process, Elaly and her family were resettled in Chicago in January of 2015 by RefugeeOne. She is now is a 10th grade student at Sullivan High School on the city's North Side.
