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By Mukala Kabongo
The Mawada Initiative held its first Healing Colors Gala this past weekend at the Exchange Conference Center in the Seaport District in Boston to highlight some of the more neglected problems of the Syrian crisis.
The organization, which attempts to raise public awareness around mental health and educational challenges within refugee communities, intends to make the fundraiser an annual social event.
Yasmin Alhassani and Maysa Bourham, co-founders of the Mawada Initiative, said they put the party together because there were few social activities happening in the Boston area.
“We were thinking that there’s no such social events that is happening recently,” said Bourham. “It’s been really boring.”
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Alhassani’s experience working as a volunteer with her husband in a refugee camp in Jordan is what sparked the idea to have the gala benefit children in that region.
“We were both working there just as volunteers, I was so inspired by the work these kids do,” said Alhassani.
The gala featured live music, presentations and a silent auction with art from Artolution, a community-based public art organization based in New York that facilitates art therapy in refugee communities.
Alhassani noticed the work that Artolution co-founders Max Freider and Joel Bergner do to promote arts and education and asked them to participate.
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“A lot of the work that we do is really about how you can get a community of children and adolescents to come together,” said Freider.
Collaborating with Mawada was a way for both organizations to promote the arts and showcase the talents of Syrian children.
“There was a lot of support for medical care for housing and for food for refugees, but not a lot of educational and creative activities, arts based activities,” said Bergner.
Mawya Shocair, a resident of Weston who is originally from Syria, hopes this gala can bring the international community together.
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“It’s hard for someone from a different region to realize that it’s all one country,” said Shocair. “In here you see Egyptians, you see Iraqis, you see Syrians, you see Lebanese, you see all one country. But for us, you see the other world.”
The gala raised more than $19,000. The proceeds will support the many community based public arts projects that Artolution plans on facilitating this summer at the Zaatari & Azraq refugee camps in Jordan.
The Mawada Initiative supports projects that intend to create social change through art therapy, education and public health endeavors.
Slideshow by Mukala Kabongo