Peace in War

We never wanted War City. It was like receiving the Biblical “unloved sister”. Our eyes were on Shariya Camp and the government really wanted to dump War City on us newbies, but we soon both admired and fell in love with this precious community as our stake went deep into the ground.

By way of reminder it's a tenement dumping area that somehow got the auspicious title of city when it was never even a village. It’s a home though, a place of refuge, a safe haven to the Syrian Kurds who fled Syria, and to Arabs who fled Mosul upon the invasion of ISIS.

There is one school, and we have been the only preschool kindergarten for the past ten years. We work closely with the school so we know that the children need to learn Kurdish, Arabic and English alphabets prior to school entry. We offer early learning skills to 40 children at a time, each semester lasts for 3 months, and we nurture them from the ground up, teaching them non violent conflict resolution, acceptance of the one who is different, patience, tolerance and finding one’s individuality in community. We teach them positive speech and not to gossip, to build up and not tear down. We give them the building blocks of life, knowing that these are children who will one day return to Syria or Federal Iraq and will need a solid foundation upon which to stand as they return to regions of chaos.

In many ways we are more involved in the lives of the Syrian children and their ongoing journey after kindergarten as the parents are equal participants, coming to check on their child’s progress, helping us to prepare for graduation, always making time to be involved, making cookies, sharing their little food with us. The kindergarten student of today becomes our volunteer and participant in the Syrian branch of the Hope Academy of Art. The kids who don’t go home.

In the past months we have increased our work within this community by giving additional time and focus to the special needs children, and right now are searching house to house for one young man, autistic whom we hear has been locked in a room for several years. (This is something that we are hearing repeatedly with regards to autistic children. When our information is complete we will share with you.) We are continually looking to make ways of peace in a violent area. We are looking for the one who has fallen through the cracks, the one that is neglected and then find the way to incorporate or create an additional programme.

We have just graduated another batch of kiddies, our 36th graduation. It’s a simple update this week, sharing some of the joy of graduation, of a completed cycle, yet one that will continue into the future.

We value your support for these families from war torn regions. It is our honor to help rehabilitate them, to provide them with a safe place so that their children will have every opportunity that we can provide to be well educated and morally and ethically prepared for a hard future as their homeland lies in chaos and their status as “asylum seeker” hangs in the balance.

Thank you for your support, without which we can not even go and search “for the one.”

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Can you help?

With your help we are building a solid foundation for these children who desperately need these strong building blocks to survive and thrive. 

Every donation makes a huge difference.