The Little Journalist: Jalal Who Wrote His Pain Before Learning to Read

In a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, beneath a gray sky and biting cold, Huda sat on a thin mattress, struggling to breathe, smiling at the small boy who never left her side. His name is Jalal, her only son, just eight years old, yet carrying the burden of a grown man.

Every day I wake up scared she won’t be able to get up, Jalal said, hiding his face in his mother’s blanket. I’m the one who works… I buy her medicine. Jalal sometimes works in nearby farms, earning what little he can to buy medication for his mother, who suffers from a severe heart condition.

When Huda spoke, she said: My son became a man too early… he cooks, he takes care of us… and I worry about him more than my own illness. She looked at him and added: Jalal wants to become a journalist.

When he saw me holding a camera, he came up and asked, Can I do an interview? I handed him the mic and asked, What do you want to say? He replied with a child’s voice wrapped in rare courage: I’m Jalal, we came from Beirut to the camp, my mom is sick, I’m not afraid, I work, and I want to be a journalist… to tell people’s stories.

The scene was deeply human and emotional. A child still learning to read, yet writing the first chapters of his life through labor and sacrifice. Jalal and his mother reflect the lives of thousands of refugee children who grew up in the shadows, dreaming of having a voice in the light.

As if his voice echoed the words of Ghassan Kanafani:

He is not young who carries the burden of his homeland.
The young one is he who no longer dreams.

According to UNHCR reports, more than 58% of refugee children in Lebanon work to support their families, often in unsafe and inappropriate environments.

Jalal didn’t ask for toys. He asked for a camera, a notebook, a window to the world. I want to film my mom’s pain, and show the world how we live, he said, touching the microphone as if it were a treasure.

I could only promise him that I’d tell his story, just as he wished, and share his voice with the world. Jalal may not hold a press badge, but his heart, compassion, and awareness… are more powerful than a thousand credentials.