Hadeel Dawwas

My name is Hadeel Dawwas, and I am from Amman, Jordan. I recently graduated from the Architecture School at the University of Jordan. After graduation, I was lost in my thoughts and not sure what I wanted to do in my life, career, and future. I always had a passion for photography, fashion, and traveling, but wondered how I could do all of these things without losing my soul? Was it possible to stay true to my soul and be happy, stay away from this materialistic, fake world while, at the same time, finding the true, lovely side of it? I wondered how I could bring my soul into the world and bring the world into my soul. A day after graduation, I went for a walk alone in the Amman streets searching for a way to put it all together.

I have always liked to believe that I see things other people cannot! I liked to believe there was an "Alice in Wonderland" inside me. For this reason, I decided to look for stories of people we never hear about or do not like to think about and stay away from because they put us out of our comfort zone.

The “rabbit” led me to the airport street where most of the Gypsies in Jordan live. It was dangerous for me to go, but with time I gained their trust. I went again and again, and spent three months visiting them like this. Every morning I woke up just thinking about them. I thought about making a documentary about these people who live among us to show others what their needs are and what makes them happy.

The main subject of my documentary was a girl called Nura.
Through sharing my documentary with the world, I hoped to change the way she lives.. To take her from the tents or maybe help her go to school.. To give her a life like the one I had when I was in her age..

I started to look for sponsors and wind brought them to me from all over, but I began to feel miserable about myself as I spent more time in the tents! I found that Nura is happy with her life and the way she lives. The one who needed to change was me! The one who lost her soul was me! I found it again because of Nura..

She is a little body with a thousand souls.. She did not need my fancy clothes, my life, or my education. She was just as happy with what little she had: a smile, sunshine, and a family–that is all it takes! If you can find the will inside you, you can change yourself, and you can change the world!