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Yousef

{Iraq}

Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. All of me, my home and my things are in Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. My friends, my books are in Iraq. My school, my notebooks are in Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. All of them are in Iraq.

Iraq. Iraq. Iraq. I came from Iraq to America because all people kill people and some people wanted to kill us. I couldn’t stay in Iraq. In Iraq they put a bomb in my school and next to my home. So I came from Iraq to America.

My friends are dead I miss them and I cry and cry. All of them are in Iraq. I miss my family in Iraq.

America is fun. You can’t kiss your girlfriend in Iraq. You can only call her that’s all.

Capoeira

“Capoeira?!! What does that mean?" Huseen said, before I brought my students and other Iraqi kids to watch it.

On April 10th 2009, a group of dancers from Brazil, Portugal, Germany, and Syria performed the Capoeira dance to the Iraqi refugee and other kids in Damascus. My kids at Nativewithoutanation, not a surprise, had no idea what Capoeira is!

Hussein is one of the 40 other kids I was able to bring to the show. He was very curious. Before we arrived to our destination, he approached me and said “What does Capoeira mean?” It didn’t take that long to explain when the word “dance” was involved.

Upon our arrival, we were taken in a tour to be familiar with this special kind of performance. The kids were also taught how to dance the Capoeira. It was very amusing and joyful to the Iraqi refugees kids.

Two hours after attending the show, everybody took a break and pastry and juice were served, which add more joy to the kids, of course. Then, the Iraqi refugee kids danced the Capoeira with the trainers.

Now Hussein and the others know not only the meaning of the Capoeira dance, but also learned how to dance it.

Zaineb Hassan

My name is Zaineb Hassan and I am 11 years old. I am in fifth grade. I am from Baghdad. I like going to school very much.
Now that I live in Syria with my family, I keep remember how nice and big our house was! It was part of a big farm. We had a good life there. We came to Syria after the war when the situation in Baghdad became seriously bad. We decided to leave when my father received threats. But in addition to that, it had gotten to scary seeing all those corpses of dead bodies in streets on our way to school.

Then my father decided to bring us to Syria to live in peace. I was able to register at one school in Syria. It was difficult at the beginning because they used different dialect but after two months I was began using their dialect. Now I even have many friends. My ambition is to be surgeon. My favorite hobbies is to play gymnastic.

Anfal Hassan

My name is Anfal Hassan, 13, and I am in seventh grade. I live in Syria for 3 years now. Before that I lived peacefully in Baghdad with my family in a big house. The area was called Al-dora. We are a big family. I have 4 sisters and 2 brothers in addition to my Mom and Dad. All of my sisters are ambitious.

After 2003 we face many problems, my dad got threats at his work office. And there was an attempt to kidnap my older sister as she was on the way to school. Her freind was kidnapped and the next day her family found her dead body thrwon in the street.

After that, we got frightened. We stopped going to school. And then we faced another, strange type of problem. Some group tried to divorce my Dad and Mom because they are from differed sects. Of course my parents didn't get divorced. But then there was no way we could have stayed there after that happened.

When we came to Syria I lost one year from school but I was able to get advanced and continue my level.

Now our live is difficult, my dad can't work and we are just kids can't do anything. We live on some assistance from UNHCR but it's not enough. The house we live in now is not healthy and has just one bed room. Although life is difficult, we continue to be hopeful and hoping for better tomorrow.

My ambition is to be inventor and my hobby is painting.

First art show

Four months ago I was trying to find the gallery can help Noor to show her paintings.

Noor is one of my students. She is an artist, and a few weeks ago I went to a meeting of Iraqi artists and writers to ask if they could help us host a show for the Iraqi kids.

One of them was encouraging and she is a poet and she liked what I do with my students. She agreed to host the show on Friday, Jan. 30.

Noor was nervous.

"The most important day of my live is this day," she said.

There were not a lot of people there but I am happy that I have a new project for artistic children, and now I am planning to a bigger show with more student artists.

New Year's

On the occasion of the New Year, Al-Nahren charity held a celebration for Iraqi kids in Damascus in the big church in Jaramaneh area where a lot of Iraqi refugees live there.

January 3rd was a good day for my students because I was able to get 15 tickets for them to the celebration. The amazing thing that the Christians and Muslims kids celebrated together in the church without prejudice, and everybody enjoyed themselves.

The gathering included Iraqi clowns and distribution of gifts for the children. There were about 300 kids at the celebration, as well as Iraqi actors, staff from the Iraqi embassy and some Iraqi volunteers in the UNHCR.

The clowns were able to put smiles on the kids' faces even though this is a difficult time — in the winter it's cold here and the students need many clothes and not all of them have heating systems and if they do it's very expensive this winter, because power is getting more expensive and everybody knows that the Iraqi refugees haven't any income in Syria.

Three months ago the UNHCR stopped the food system to Iraqi families in Syria, we don't know if they will continue or not. I think if they stop assisting refugees for much longer they will return back to the dangers of Iraq.

The Test!

So, I needed to find out if my efforts teaching the Iraqi refugee kids how to use computers are fruitful. I sat up an examination for them.

Last week, I had the first test and it went very well. The "students" were very excited to compete with each other for higher grades. One of the kids actually cried when she got 8/10. When I saw that, I thought about how much these kids care about studying and learning even when they are this traumatized!

As I asked questions and got the right answers, I felt pleasure that I am doing the right thing although with many difficulties. I mean, considering the fact that I have no single chair, not enough computers or a blackboard, this is an achievement.

However, a few weeks ago, I went to one of the Syrian educational institutes and asked them if they have anything to help with. Eventually, they donated a few computer handouts, which were really helpful. So, things are not too bad at the end.