When Rym Akhonzada first moved to Northern Ireland from Tunisia just over 20 years ago, she had the advantage of a good education and a strong grasp of languages.
Fluent in Arabic, French, and English and a bit of Italian, the mother-of-three went on to establish the Interlingua School of Languages in Lisburn.
The school offers language classes for those with either a professional or leisure interest in foreign languages.
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Soon, schools across Northern Ireland were also kicking off their new terms in Arabic.
Originally from Tunis, Rym, 47, made the move to Northern Ireland in 2001 with her husband and young son.
"My husband got a job here and at the time it was a temporary move and we weren't planning to stay here forever but as time went on, it slowly began to look more permanent," she told Belfast Live.
"Initially I struggled to find food to cook at home as part of normal Tunisian cuisine and there were not many cafes around plus the weather was much colder.
"There were lovely people around though, who were very friendly and chatty, but despite my English language degree, I still found it really hard to understand the accent and the variations in different parts of Northern Ireland."
Already holding a degree in English language and linguistics from her native Tunisia, Rym trained in community interpreting and worked with ethnic minorities communities throughout Northern Ireland before taking up a research post at Queen's University Belfast for six years.
But she knew that her heart lay in setting up her own business and that's exactly what she did with the opening of her own language school in 2011.
"I noticed that children don't learn languages in primary school and I was really surprised to find that out," she recalled.
Ten years on, the business has gone from strength to strength.
"The growth in that time has been wonderful and at the moment, we are focused on supporting newcomers especially Syrian refugees with English language," Rym said.
"I have a team of trained tutors working with me and we also cover both primary and secondary schools in different parts of Northern Ireland.
"Our service is very much about bridging the gap between school and the pupils and school and at home with the parents."
In addition to building up the language school, in 2016 Rym also founded Yallaa, a social enterprise established to facilitate engagement, inclusion and promotion of minority Arab groups and their culture in Northern Ireland.
The organisation puts a particular focus of responding to the needs of recently arrived Syrian refugees in Lisburn and helping them in the areas of education, social integration, health, employment and assimilation.
"With my own language background and after delivering a lot of language clubs and classes across Northern Ireland, I discovered that people didn't know much about Arab culture and it wasn't represented.
"Really there was always a negative connection with being an Arab, the religion and culture so this led to Yallaa being born," Rym added.
"Yallaa means 'let's go' in Arabic and I set it up with the aim of changing all that and promoting Arab culture and heritage in Northern Ireland and breaking down barriers through art, music and food."
Rym said the language barrier is a problem for many refugee families in developing a normal social life and they are at risk of experiencing a culture shock and feelings of isolation from their host communities.
"I wanted to empower Arab people to take a more active role in the community that they live in. When I arrived here in 2001, there were only a couple of thousand Arab people but now I would estimate that that has gown to between 8,000 to 10,000," she added.
Many of the families struggle to access mainstream leisure, educational and social activities and are therefore always very enthusiastic to attend events organised by Yallaa.
Yallaa recently held Northern Ireland's very first Arab Arts and Culture Festival, a very successful event designed to showcase the culture of the Arab world and its people and to connect people through shared enjoyment of art, music and food.
"One of our recent projects is Yallaa's Kitchen , an initiative started up in 2021 that supports Arab refugees and migrants living in Northern Ireland through vocational training," Rym explained.
Reflecting on making the move here 21 years on, she added: "I think I can call it home now and certainly my children now do. My husband is from Pakistan and two of my three children were born in Northern Ireland so we certainly are a multicultural family!"
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