Palestinian girl studies in Hong Kong after family flees war in Syria
Civil war forces family to flee, with one daughter ending up in Hong Kong studying
Dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and flip-flops, Neveen Abuelula looks like your typical 18-year-old student. She chats about her classes as she gives a tour of Li Po Chun United World College in Sha Tin, and talks of her dream of becoming an architect.
But one thing sets her apart from every other student on the sprawling campus: the black and white scarf she is wearing. The simple cotton scarf, a keffiyeh, represents the fight for Palestinian freedom from Israeli occupation. It is a fight Neveen has known all her life.
Born and raised in Syria's largest refugee camp, Yarmouk, Neveen and her family were forced to flee last December as the civil war that has ravaged the country since 2011 edged closer to their home.
Neveen is now one of the 2.2 million refugees who have been displaced since Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched military attacks on anti-government groups after protests erupted in early 2011. Of the Syrian refugees that have fled the war-torn country or been internally displaced, 235,000 are Palestinian, according to the United Nations.
"The humanitarian situation in Yarmouk is desperately bad, with the figure of those displaced telling its own tragic story," said Christopher Gunness of the UN Relief and Works Agency.
Yarmouk, on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, is home to a large portion of the half a million Palestinians in Syria.
