Berkley Center

Mohammed Badran is a co-founder of Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands, an NGO with more than 600 volunteers helping older people with household tasks, caring for disabled children, tending public gardens, and bringing new ideas by and for newcomers. A Damascus native, when the war started in Syria he was studying interior design at Damascus University; he began to receive threats because of his humanitarian work with Syria Trust and UNHCR, eventually forcing him to leave. Badran's journey took him between the Middle East and West Africa, before he finally arrived in the Netherlands in 2013. He resumed his studies in cultural anthropology and development at the Free University in Amsterdam. As he gained a Dutch perspective on Europe’s struggle to support the growing number of Syrians and other nationalities fleeing war, he joined with friends to form Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands. Badran was a participant in the International Higher Education Interfaith Leadership Forum.