Talk and understand

Young Iraqi refugees in Damascus are in touch with US kids thanks to a novel idea to bring them together via web chats and video conferences. From there, friendships have blossomed
by Sarah Birke
In the overcrowded suburbs of Jaramana and Sayda Zeinab on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria’s capital city, the difficult lives of young Iraqi refugees are a million miles away from those of their peers in the US.But a project of web conference chats is bringing them closer together. For the past three years, Firas Majeed, a 34-year-old refugee from Baghdad, has been linking up young Iraqis, from nine to 19, with young people in the US via Skype. His aim is to build friendships and show Iraqi refugees in Syria that people haven’t forgotten their existence.The project has been so successful that Ross School, a private institution in New York State, has added the web chats to its 5th grade (10-11 year-olds) syllabus. “The conferences help the children who feel they have been forgotten and are running out of hope,” says Majeed. He started the project Native Without A Nation after informally helping other Iraqis to learn computer skills. That made him realise what a powerful tool the internet could be: “They are so eager to connect with the outside world.”The Iraqi refugees have been living in run-down bare buildings since fleeing the sectarian violence which broke out in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. The United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR, calculated that in January 748,000 Iraqis were residing in Syria – the country which has taken in the largest number of Iraqi refugees. Relatively few have been resettled or have returned to Iraq. Many children are not in school; they either need to work or cannot find a school with spaces close to home. Poverty and depression engulfs the community.Seeing this widespread malaise prompted Majeed to start his project. He had already had the idea after coming across Skype; then he found a partner in Marie Maciak, the media director at Ross Institute, the umbrella organisation of the school. Maciak had met Majeed’s sister, a journalist married to an American, in New York in 2007. That prompted her to go to Syria. She met Majeed and was enthused by his efforts, and agreed to start the video conferences on her return to the US.Video chats with children at Ross School have given the young Iraqis friendship – and more hope for the future. And there is also a blog on which they can write about their lives, and give updates. “The most important thing has been making new friends,” says Asmaa Ali, 13, whose family fled Bani Sa’ad in Diyala province in 2007 after their father, who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross, was threatened. “I like learning about other people’s cultures,” says Asmaa. Her brother Hussein Ali, 16, agrees. “We need to know there are people out there who remember us and want to help us.”The private initiative has been welcomed by refugee experts. “There is a lack of funding and programming available to address the dire mental health conditions of Iraqi refugees; this kind of cultural exchange can open children’s minds and provide them with ideas,” says Elizabeth Campbell, senior advocate at Refugees International, a US-based advocacy group. “Communications technologies should be used much more regularly in humanitarian operations, but unfortunately the agencies tend to be stuck in the habitual ways of responding.”US initiative

Initial conferences focussed on conversation about family, school subjects and hobbies, but inevitably the children began to discuss the war and the US’s leading role in it. That was mainly prompted by the US students. “Our children feel very guilty about the US invasion,” says Maciak. “The older students started the conversation by apologising for the war. They assumed Iraqi children would hate them.”Some Iraqi families would not let their children take part in the project on account of the US role, but they are the minority. “It’s wrong to confuse the American people, especially children, with the US army or government,” said Ali, Hussein and Asmaa’s father. “They are people like us.”The reaction of the US children – especially those in the 11th grade (aged 16-17) with more of an understanding of the war – was far greater than that of the Iraqi children. One session, in which they watched footage and talked about some of the refugees’ reasons for leaving their country, had the children in tears, Maciak says. “There is a real sense of shock at the situation and frustration that this could have been prevented. The kids find that hard to deal with.”As there’s no internet connection at home, the conferences take place in one of Damascus’s myriad internet cafes. The Iraqi children have tight schedules: many have jobs as well as school, and are expected to help in the home. So their access to the internet and email is limited.To expand the relationship, the children have sent each other presents: textiles embroidered by the Iraqi children, bracelets, drawings. And they have jointly written a play about a young Iraqi boy who becomes an archaeologist. The Ross School children performed the play, taped it and sent it to the Iraqi children to watch.Three years in, the project is having unforeseen benefits as an initiation for those who have been accepted for resettlement to the US. Some of the children – and Majeed himself – are due to depart for the US before the end of the year. Asmaa and Hussein’s family is also due to leave. The parents hope that having experience of the American people and a glimpse of their culture will help ease the difficulties of resettlement.“We hope to meet the children,” says Hussein. Asmaa adds that because of the video conferences, they are less nervous than they would have been about resettlement. After all, the children speak only a little English and will be moving to an entirely new country and culture. “But at least I know what an American classroom looks like, that they have libraries and that the school system is organised.”Beyond the initial goal of giving the Iraqi children friendship and hope, the web chats are shattering stereotypes. One American child had been fascinated by classes about ancient history but had associated modern Iraq with “bad people”. Speaking to the Iraqis made him realise they were children just like him, with the same likes, the same hopes and dreams.Majeed says that from his new home in New York he hopes to expand Native Without A Nation beyond links between Iraqis and Americans, to reach all those who have been forced to leave their homeland. He hopes this will translate into more honest discussions among the next generations. “These are the people who will be managing the world after us. If they talk, and they understand each other, they will grow up with more empathy and think of the repercussions on others before they act