Education Kits and Our Activity Booklet

 

There are nearly 2 million displaced Syrian children struggling with life away from their homes. About three quarters of these kids don't go to school full time - if at all. Studio Syria wants to help these children to remember the joys of learning so we have begun distributing education kits after we teach workshops. The kits contain pencils, paper, pencil sharpeners, notebooks and colored pencils. Recently we have added our specially designed activity booklets which contain coloring pages, alphabet and reading lessons, basic math problems and a specially written and illustrated story complete with creative writing prompts. 

Laurie and Ghadeer stuff education kits at a medical clinic in Salt, Jordan.

Jean distributes Studio Syria education kits to Jordanian kids too since it is increasingly important to assist host communities who are straining under the influx of refugees. These kids live in the Ghor al Safi.

Seattle based children's book author Anna Witte wrote and illustrated a story specially for our booklet. The adventurous tale of children's empowerment ends with a message of hope - and some creative writing prompts. Studio Syria is grateful to volunteers like Dave and Anna - and to Kutaieba Alsamman who translated the whole booklet into Arabic - a huge contribution.

Small distributions like this one in Zaatari Village work best so that we can make sure each child gets a kit and no one feels left out.

Seattle based artist Chris Rollins sent us original drawings that we turned into writing prompts urging the children to imagine and write about strange and friendly creatures.

Studio Syria partnered with IRD to develop appropriate materials including this map of Zaatari Camp illustrated by New York based David Badders who shows the four schools in the camp with pencil icons. The message tells children how to register for school and the map is surrounded by math questions encouraging counting and critical thinking. Only the booklets distributed inside Zaatari contain this map.

Studio Syria has already distributed 500 education kits and will continue to make as many as we can afford. Each kit costs $3.50. We gratefully accept donations on our web page www.studiosyria.org

What We Achieved in January 2014

We worked with four new partners this January as well as spending a day with our wonderful old friends from Save the Children Jordan in Zaatari Camp.

As always Save's staff were helpful and hard working as we welcomed kids to their trailer on the edge of the camp for a pastel drawing workshop. We had an open door policy and saw a lot of mothers and toddlers - some of whom stayed with us all day. Unlike our last visit though, boys were not allowed into the trailer so we made sure they had a little art space outside. Too bad our drawing boards were back at base camp - but our paper was thick enough to allow for some artistic fun on a very rocky surface.

Zaatari Camp is situated in the desert and miles and miles of rough grade gravel has been laid down in an effort to reduce dust storms.







Studio Syria also spent a day with a pop up medical clinic visiting the ancient town of Salt. The clinics are organized by Seattle's Salaam Cultural Museum and doctors from all over the United States and Jordan who bring staff and medicines to locations where refugees are living in "host communities". The clinics last for a day and then move on to other locations since there are about half a million Syrian refugees living outside the main camp throughout the country.  Here you can see women registering for medical examinations.

While the parents were being treated their children enjoyed a hat making workshop hosted by Studio Syria's Jean Bradbury and Laurie Balbo.  

Below you can see Dr Hugh providing psychological counseling to refugee children through the SCM program. 

Some Jordanian girls like to wear bunched ribbons under their hijab to be fashionable. It made a fun place to attach a paper hat. 

Studio Syria handed out education kits and activity booklets that we made specially. The kits contained pencils, sharpeners, colored pencils, notebooks and paper. 

A highlight of our time in Jordan was the chance to work with the team from AptArt who are partnering with ACTED outside Zaatari Camp in the towns of Mafraq, Irbid and Zaatari Village. Samantha Robison and Luc van der Walt wrangle guest artists and swarms of children to produce extraordinary murals with messages of hope and guidance. Jean hung out and held an impromptu pastel workshop in the adjacent parking lot. She also handed out education kits to the participating children, half of whom were Jordanian and half Syrian. 

Another wonderful group of people we worked with this month is Dar al Yasmin who travel from Amman to Zaatari Village every couple of weeks to bring children's activities, support and supplies to a group of Syrian refugees living outside the camp. Jean joined them and led a book making workshop on a very cold day up in that northern border town. Seeing so many bare feet in the bitter cold prompted friends of Studio Syria to raise extra money to buy socks which Jean distributed later in the month. As you can see the cold didn't stop these girls from having fun with their books.



Our final method of outreach this month took the least amount of organization. There are thousands of Syrian refugees camped informally throughout the country of Jordan, including the farming town of Safi where Jean was teaching for UNESCO. It was easy to walk over to one of the small encampments after work and join the families for tea. Jean and her friends handed out education kits since the children were not attending school. They heard stories of the destruction of Hama, where this family is from.


Studio Syria will do more outreach like this in the future - as well as partnering with aid organizations to continue to bring creative education opportunities to displaced Syrian's and their host communities.






Thank you for your support in 2013. We operate on a very small budget supported by donors like you. Because we have no overhead and work as volunteers we are able to channel all our donations directly to the people who need our help the most. Please know that your support has been effective and is greatly appreciated.

Winter Cold and Lots and Lots of Hats!

In September Studio Syria started a yarn club in Zaatari Refugee Camp. It was fun and successful with many women and kids making their own warm clothing and enjoying the therapy of creating, learning and teaching. Hats, gloves and sweaters were made and worn proudly.

It soon became clear, however, that the need in the camp for warm clothing was dire, so with winter approaching Studio Syria's Laurie Balbo decided to keep as many children warm as she could. Partnering with her friend in Ireland, Virginia Nitz, the women collected 4000 donated hats! With shipping donated by DHL and a hefty customs duty fee paid by Laurie's fundraising effort, the hats were delivered to Zaatari Camp on Wednesday. The American organization International Relief and Developement coordianted. The next day the camp was hit with snow that became the worst storm Jordan has seen in many years. You can see Virginia's Facebook about her hat collecting adventures here. And read about Laurie's customs adventures here.

Studio Syria, based in Seattle, served as a collection point for American hat makers involved in the project. We collected over 500 hats and gave some to our local friends the Salaam Cultural Museum who have already distributed them to refugees in Jordan. We also sent a selection to refugees in Turkey with Play4 Syria. The rest will be hand carried by Jean to Jordan in December. See photos of all the American hats on the Studio Syria Facebook. 

Meanwhile Canadian knitters did not want to be left out and have been adding to the mix.

What a crazy wonderful scheme Laurie and Virginia. And what glorious results! Laurie's next plan is to raise cash for shoes and socks. Having warmed the heads and hearts of 4000 kids already she is taking care of cold and wet feet too. Donations of money for shoes can be made to Studio Syria or directly to Laurie's Paypal. If you don't think kids should have bare feet and sandals in freezing weather please donate. We'll buy new socks and used shoes in Amman.

And if you are in the Seattle area you can drop off donations of new socks, pajamas and underwear - as well as clean blankets and warm clothing (used is fine) at the Salaam Cultural Museum. Rita will ship them to Jordan for refugees there. She also needs vitamins and children's cold medicine. Containers leave from Seattle regularly. Read about Rita's efforts on her blog.

Give money to Studio Syria here.

Give blankets and supplies here:

Studio Syria
1618-10th Avenue W
Seattle, WA 98119

The Salaam Cultural Museum
3806 Whitman Ave. N, Seattle WA 98103 (Wallingford)
Thank you.



Opal looks at an aerial photograph of Zaatari camp and guards some of the Seattle hat collection.

Hats on heads. Seattle's Salaam Cultural Museum distributed these hats in November.

These hats were distributed at a SCM clinic in January. 

Art Exhibition

Studio Syria will be exhibiting original drawings made by the children of Zaatari refugee camp from 7-10 November in Seattle at the Affordable Art Fair. Founder of Studio Syria, Jean Bradbury, will speak about her experiences teaching art in the camp on Sunday 10 November at 3:30pm. You can read an interview with Jean here. 

See you at the Fair!

Studio Syria Partners with other Organizations

As a small organization Studio Syria finds it beneficial to partner with larger groups to reach as many children as possible. We work in Zaatari Camp with security clearance and a great deal of assistance from Save the Chilrdren Jordan. We are currently working with International Relief and Developement to supply their library. We delivered art supplies to the UN Women's center in Zaatari. And we went shopping for art supplies with childhood trauma specialist Alexandra Chen from Mercy Corps in September to help to supply their child friendly spaces. You can hear an brief NPR interview with Alexandra about her work here.

Fundraiser for the Salaam Cultural Museum

If you are in the Seattle area please join the wonderful people working with the Salaam Cultural Museum for an evening of music and food. They have been taking a huge amount of medical and educational aid into Jordan and Syria for displaced people. Let's support them in their work by attending this fun event on 24th October. It's at Harissa Mediterranean Cuisine, 2255 NE 65th St, Seattle, WA 98121.

Studio Syria - What We Did With Your Donation

Jean is back from her September visit to Zaatari refugee camp. She taught art workshops for four days with an open door policy for children of all ages and genders. Studio Syria partners with the amazingly devoted staff of Save the Children Jordan to facilitate this. Jean also held an afternoon art workshop in a facility provided by United Nations Women and donated supplies to them.

We'd like to thank Bernadette Ward of PanPastels for donating such amazing supplies that let the kids "paint" without water.

Under the guidance of expert knitter Laurie Balbo the Studio Syria yarn club was launched using yarn donated by people in Seattle and British Columbia. Laurie also cleared out much of her personal collection for the crafters at Zaatari.  The club became so popular that we moved it outside to make room for more women and girls.





Studio Syria purchased and donated hair dressing supplies for the hair dressing school at the UN Women facility. We'd like to thank Jonathan Flint and the staff at Seattle's Salon Joseph for their support of this.





Studio Syria purchased $140 worth of Arabic children's books and delivered these along with 150 donated children's books to the new Zaatari Library.  We'd like to thank Beatrice Cross at publisher Pan MacMillan and author Karen Asfour for their generosity.

We will supply International Relief and Development with more books, pencils and notebooks to assist with their literacy campaign and the opening of two more libraries. We think this library is one of the most heart warming things we have ever seen.

Studio Syria distributed a couple of thousand pencils, markers, colored pencils and notebooks to children along with 200 copies of our specially designed activity booklet.



This young girl holds a typical Studio Syria gift of an activity notebook, pencil, markers and a pencil sharpener. She has also been given bottled water and a nutrition enriched cookie from Save the Children.

With funds from Studio Syria Jean donated $700 worth of art supplies to the Child Friendly Spaces soon to be opened at Azraq Camp.

We also met with the psychologists of Save the Children Jordan to discuss future art therapy workshops. And with the staff of Save the Children International's team who runs the 21 Child Friendly Spaces in Zaatari to discuss how to help them provide creativity to children in the camp.

It was a very busy and productive week. We have much clearer ideas about how to avoid the inevitable distribution problems and are delighted to have made so many contacts with agencies happy to receive our help.

Most of all we will never forget the smiles on the faces of the children who made art with us and the loud and joyful scenes of children having fun and using their imaginations.