Coming to a Place near You!

Two nights ago I set up a virtual collection for winter coats for Syrian refugee children sitting in camps in Gaziantep and around as well. The response has been very positive and has been yet another encouragement that together we can move mountains and get things done and support the cause and rally for freedom - and, very importantly, support the children who are paying such a high price with their childhoods.

This particular collection was a project I had been wanting to do for a while but was finally prompted by the collection Hassan AlMasri did for sponsorships for orphans inside Syria, aslo with Zakat Foundation. He used a platform website called Razoo and after looking around at other platforms including a "free one" (obviously with a catch and very few technical options), then I decided this was the best venue for this particular collection. The money will go directly to Zakat so I don't have to be the middle person; I am merely the facilitator, or whatever you want to call it, along with the dozen or so other hosts I invited to this virtual event.

These are amongst the children we are hoping to provide warm coats for. This is a picture from Gaziantep refugee camp.

Waaaay Alternative Collection for Orphans!!!

In the Facebook world of collecting monies for Syria efforts and humanitarian aid, this beneficial event here called Shave Your Mustache takes the cake! The Revolution in Syria has caused literally thousands of children to become orphans with relatives or friends only to rely on for care. The situation is obviously very dire as most people have no income anymore and can barely eat and live.

A few humanitarian organizations immediately got in the game and set up projects aimed at just helping orphans. A couple of very dedicated organizations with zero overhead - meaning all money collected goes to the aid intended - is Zakat Foundation as well as Syrian Orphans Org. However, as much as they try to get sponsorships and collect, sometimes a little extra effort is what it takes.

A young doctor called Hassan set up a very silly, but as it turned out, very effective campaign on Facebook last week where he offered to shave off his beard as soon as he reached the goal of getting two orphans sponsored. As it turned out, then people loved it and he was able to collect enough to feed and school SEVEN orphans for one year, God Bless him.

Dr. Hassan quickly expanded on the idea and got a few friends with ugly mustaches into the game and now we have a handful of men offering their mustaches as bounty for donations towards helpless Syrian orphans. It is really quite spectacular when you think of it.

In a day and half, then the team and their enthusiasm have been able to collect over $8,000 - can you believe it? That's around 12 orphans and we haven't called it the night yet.

Here are some of the orphaned children you would be helping get some normalcy into their lives:

Helping a kid is not dependent on race or nationality or religion, but on empathy and heart-strings.

Taking the Clue from the Syrian People

This past week saw violent, vicious attacks on Gaza, followed by daily, determined rallies all around the world to stand up for the Palestinians. Almost 50% of the  people killed in Gaza this week alone were children. The Syrian cause has been going on for 20 months at even great casualties daily, but we want everyone to know that each life lost is a life lost. This is not a competition for evil, but a race to do good and achieve that basic human right of freedom - and you can even throw in some dignity as well. 

The Syrian people is being slaughtered inside Syria alongside with their Palestinian fellows, most of whom have been treated like second-rate citizens in Syria under Al-Assad. In Damascus, their rights have always been curbed and they were contained (literally) in a camp there for decades. Inside Syria, Palestinians and Syrians alike are fighting the oppressive regime and together dying and getting wounded. The Syrians never expected this turn of events when they first began rallying, but all citizens in Syria support the need and demand for freedom. The Revolution is united and supported by Syrian Muslims and Christians, Kurds, the Druze, Palestinians and Alawites and they rally and kill and get killed without discrimination.

As the people of Gaza are being violently attacked, then it is encouraging and heartfelt to see that many ex-pat Syrians are walking in those rallies all across the globe, standing together and united for oppression and non-sense killing. Syrians are suffering right now, but still have humanity and the capability to care. Because that is what being free and having choices really mean - to unite and stand together for rightness and peace.

Boston Rally and Walk - One Photo Only

Yesterday was the rally and walk for Syria in Boston. As always, then I found myself to be too busy and too happily occupied to take pictures, so this photo here is the only one I took. It shows the very end of our walk line, crossing a small bridge in the Public Garden, walking towards the sunset and on wards for Freedom.

This picture is special in other ways. I was walking next to one of my most respected fellow activists (well, she is a real activist, I am just improvising), Hiam T. Hiam T. works day and night for Syria, translating and documenting every single atrocity that has been recorded for the time soon to come when the regime is going to be held accountable in International Court. She is amazing. Despite the hate and ugliness she watches and listens to every day, then her heart is full of hope and joy for the goodness in most.

In this photo itself  you see my trusted friend Laura (American and not related to Syria except via me), another Hiam - who is also  my role model and is always the first humanist in any worthy cause - along with her good-hearted son, my super cool Cambrige activist and Connector Extraordinaire to any person I might want to connect to, Blake, and my most respected Syrian protester and survivor of torture (name to be withheld here). Just an amazing shot actually, if I may say so myself (which I may since this is my blog and my voice).

I guess this photo really symbolizes the whole rally and walk. People who may or may not be Syrians, humanitarians for rightness and believers in basic human rights, and the youth that is eager and still innocent. If only I had been in the frame itself, but watching humanity unfold is not too shaggy either....

Getting Ready for Rally and Walk 11/17

Tomorrow Boston is going to see a great rally for Syria and an amazing Walk 4 Children of Syria. Rallies are always intense, uplifting gatherings. They leave you energized and re-focused, meeting so many people who come out and spend a few hours chanting for freedom and peace in Syria.

Tomorrow we hope many Palestinians will join us as well. This week  Gaza saw vicious attacks by Israel so Palestinians and supporters had rallies both yesterday and today. The hope really is that most will join the Syria rally tomorrow. It is common knowledge amongst Syrians that Assad is on par with the Zionist efforts to eradicate Palestine; just go to Syria and see how Palestinians have been living as third-grade citizens for years there and how they are getting killed like flies along with anyone else.

The People United Will Never Be Defeated. Palestine, Syria is here for you despite our bleeding hearts (literally speaking), then we are here.

Wounded Boy, Asking for Forgiveness

I met the Turk brothers online via a local trusted activist who traveled to Turkey this fall to spend a year, working with refugees and the women in particular. The Turk brothers, Hani and Shadi, work tirelessly in their spare time (and even during their school hours) to do their best to alleviate the suffering and pain for as many refugees as they can get to.

 They try to document their stories via video recordings, they spend time with the children and wounded children and try to keep them distracted and entertained, they use donations - sparse as they are - to buy basic clothing (and some dignity) for people who arrived in bloody rags, they give out phone cards to the most depressed situations so people can call their families and let them know they are still alive and they try to get much needed medication for severe cases. Whatever they do, then they do it with very limited donations and in very limited amounts. The main point is that there are people who do care and who are working tirelessly and totally selflessly to help other humans. Shadi and Hani are actually twins and around 20 years of age, college kids who should be studying and having fun with friends instead of dealing with the most traumatic cases imaginable (and not imaginable).

Recently the brothers sent me this most touching video of a 10 year old or so boy who got wounded in shellings during the night as he was at home sleeping. The video footage is almost 6 minutes long and consists of the boy reciting suras, praying and asking for forgiveness, saying shahadah, praying, cursing the perpetrators including the president of his home country and praying and crying. Please explain to me the logic of a kid having to ask forgiveness after he was wounded and almost killed.

Asylum Case and Interpreter

The past few days were spent getting feedback from our local asylum-seeking family and talking with the student lawyer and lawyer representing their case. They have so far been in two meetings with the lawyers and we are still figuring out the logistics of interpretation and avoiding mis-representation. At the first meeting I was interpreting for the father and while my Arabic is far from fluent, then we would go back and forth until I felt confident that I was completely conveying his sentiment and his actual words. It worked really well (and was personally very fulfilling), however, the lawyers were concerned that  was not a neutral party  and that my friendship with the family would invalidate their asylum case.

At last week's meeting the mother was alone at the session and as we had been told then she had an interpreter appointed by the lawyers. The mother left feeling totally violated and not properly represented in addition to the information the interpreter had give to her about her daughter's medical case properly not being ground for human parole (she might feel better and not be seriously ill) as well as relaying that the lawyers indicated the case was very weak and had not real ground. The mother was obviously very shaken up and when I spoke with the father several days later then he was still very nervous and now scared.

I called the student lawyer up and explained to her that the family was terrified and back to feeling mistrust. How could they be continuing to tell the truth if the interpreter was telling them their case was weak unless they had done specific acts or been involved in specific political acts when they had not? It dawned on me that basically the lives of the asylum seekers are in the hand of an interpreter so if that person has a personal or political agenda, then too bad. Not only is there a lot of space of deliberate misrepresentation and misleading, but also scarcity of words and lack of delivering the emotion of the story told can change the whole perspective. It is really scary to consider how a stranger can be set about to represent you and your family and you are at their mercy.

The lawyers thankfully quickly agreed to investigate getting another interpreter as they had also not been comfortable with the situation and the brevity of the interpreter's translations. It was a relief to find that they had had some of the same concerns and wanted the refugee family to feel safe and in good hands. For tomorrow's meeting, then they will try another interpreter and if things don't improve then I will suggest more strongly that we investigate getting a neutral interpreter from our broader community.

It all boils down to trust and delivery of the message. If the messenger can tell the story truthfully, then the asylum-seeking family has nothing to fear or worry about.

Rally and Walk - Let's Unite

Saturday is Walk 4 Children of Syria which will take place all around the States and in dozens of countries internationally as well as in some places inside of Syria and in some refugee camps.Walk 4 Children of Syria is coordinated by Syrian American Alliance which in such an effort has ensured everyone walks on the same day in a unified attempt.  It is empowering to be united about something as well as very positive for the sake of creating more awareness about what is going on in Syria in general and in particular what is happening to the children.

Boston also has a rally before the walk. Rallies are a great way to connect with fellow supporters and activists and really get the enthusiasm and blood in the cheeks flowing. If the weather is even remotely as nice as today, then we should have a grand time and even if it gets chilly, then the reality is that Syria's people have no choice, sunshine or not, but to forge forwards in their strive for freedom.

Unity Amongst Individualism and Discrepancies

We are all individuals with our own tempers and agendas. Sometimes our egos get in the way of the better good, but most often - with the cause and goal in mind - even the most stubborn and self-observed individual can get over themselves in order to achieve their objective. During the recent months, that have now turned to over a year and a half, I have encountered many activists who have clashed over whatever personal disagreement came up and even occasionally deeper rifts were grown with the obvious result in a lack of cooperation and aborted projects.

Today I donated a very modest amount of money to a fellow activist who had set up this wonderfully enthusiastic and innovative orphan sponsorship collection on Facebook where he encouraged folks to donate money towards the sponsorship of five Syrian orphans. Lo and behold, within a couple of days he had reached his minimum goal and was now reaching for even a higher number of orphans that would now be guaranteed food and some sort of financial stability for at least a year.

As it happened, then I wanted to donate because like this activist then I love doing good also and setting up initiatives and - like him - then I know what it means to get support from many people and a pat on the back. I sent off my (honestly shamefully modest) donation and received in return a wonderful thank you email that also brought to my attention the fact that the brother and I had previously had some disagreements which was why he was especially surprised and thrilled over my contribution. I was floored. It had honestly never occurred to me to not support him (nor was I carrying the disagreement in my mind or heart). Yes, we had disagreed over some pro-Revolution project and I had - as a matter of fact-- left the Facebook group as I had not wanted my dissent from the majority to bring down the focus of the group. The reality was that their group and their intentions were wonderful all along, but just had not jibed with my needs (or perhaps even with my ego since I was their senior in age and from my perspective also experience) and I had had different expectations about the activist group than what was the perceived reality. However, it had never occurred  to me to carry a grudge for ages or to abort helping and supporting useful and innovative programs out of pride or arrogance. I replied to this honest brother's pleasure at my support of his project, and he agreed and was enthused that as activists and humans  the cause was bigger than the ego and individual discrepancies.

The People United Will Never Be Defeated. This is the mantra I try to follow and live by (but, of course, I am only human and have temper and an ego, so you never know if those might come in the way one time for uniting and working together for our shared goal).

Quiet Week

The past few days have been quiet and I have felt more like in recovery mode than action mode, unfortunately. It is what it is, though, and what I expected after a super-busy past few weeks with the culmination of last weekend. The art is to propel forward while still in emotional recovery mode in order to not feel placated and too self-satisfied.

We do have a rally and walk for Syria's children coming up next weekend. Rallies are fun and invigorating most of the time. It might be quite chilly, but we'll manage the cold by putting on some extra layers and perhaps sipping on some hot cocoa. We've got it easy here in New England. The mood at our last few rallies have been quite hesitant. When people here in our area began rallying 1 1/2 year ago the mood and spirit were high and people felt by the next rally the regime will have fallen, for sure. That didn't happen. Things got way more complicated or actually more accurately the way of exterminating a nation became more intricate and elaborate and way bloodier than any normal human beings ever expected. I want everyone to know that Syrians inside of Syria are determined to live free or die. They refuse to live like animals and know that Paradise is theirs for the taking at a sooner point than expected for standing up for their basic human right of freedom, but it is their only option. Humanity is the one thing nobody can strip you off, even as they humiliate, rape, and burn you off.

So next weekend Boston will join the voices of Syria and stand shoulder to shoulder as we support the Syrian people's right to live, think and gather freely and with no threat or fear.

Torture Survivor Speaks at Fundraiser

Sunday was the formal fundraiser for Syria. We all needed to feel that sense of community and unite for at least a few hours on a positive note of feeling we were making a difference in hopefully several hundred displaced and hurting Syrians. My friend came over and introduced me to this newly arrived gentleman from Damascus. The man was holding onto a cane and was wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up and his jacket over. He looked very kind, but also scared and exhausted. He had survived recent torture and imprisonment and had now arrived here, more than eager to recover and try to get his soul put back together. I exchanged a few words with some helpful brothers and decided to include him in the fundraising program. What often happens at fundraisers is that people walk up to you and want to be included in your program. They may or may not speak well English and may or may not be public speakers. Many are quite boring presenters and there is nothing to kill an exciting and well-planned program than adding some sleep-inducing presenter(s). 

I was right away taken with this brother's excellent command of English and his eagerness to speak as long as his name was not mentioned. He really wanted to talk and share and help us raise more money for the cause of freedom in Syria and to provide humanitarian help to people now out on the streets or dying from hunger and lack of basic medical care. The program began and I found the brother haltingly walking up to me, asking to speak with me. He was feeling bad and awfully guilty about having to speak about himself and his situation and suggested he talk about the situation he had left behind instead, about the thousands of people on the streets in Damascus now. Proud, independent people who were now out on the streets in the unrelenting cold, with no clothes, belongings, money or food. He mentioned makeshift schools in bombarded buildings where people had tried to hang up plastic bags as protection against the elements, educating their children and future and doing their part to keep up the spirit and insure everyone's future. He wanted to share their misery and not the horrors of his own story. I felt very sympathetic and very little next to this survivor of some of the cruelest human experiences imaginable. I promised this gentleman that I would indeed deal with the problems of Damascus and I would do my part to help those people - and God willing then this blog is one way of helping and eventually creating funds for them - but that tonight was building up to a climax of us needing to help individual people and that his story would fit in perfectly and put a face to the horrors we hear about. He agreed to my request and went ahead an hour later and gave a very moving, to the point presentation of the violence that happened to him in the name of dictatorship and total need for control. His crime was to have been part of a rally for freedom and the damaging evidence was the flag he had hidden up his sleeve, discovered upon violent frisking by the shabeeha when they stopped the rally. There was much to fear from the group of educated, freedom-thirsty crowd of people who no longer wanted to live like sheep, but wanted the freedom and liberty to think and speak openly and with no fear.

The Suffering Grasses and Panel at MIT

Monday was a really interesting event. We had set up a showing of the fascinating and very relevant documentary and work of art The Suffering Grasses, followed by a panel discussion and dinner. Suffering Grasses depicts how the Syrian people originally had had visions of a purely non-violent request for freedom and never in their wildest nightmares saw the hateful and indiscriminate killings and destruction coming. The movie has several different tracks of people talking and gives many varied viewpoints -but thank God for justice and level-headedness then the movie never tries to present the viewpoint of the oppressive regime or pretends that shabeeha are anything other than heartless, robotic killers.

The film is definitely worth watching and the producers actually offer the movie for free if you set up a showing and bring in people to watch it and hopefully start a dialogue and a discussion on what is happening and how we can help with humanitarian needs, long-term and short-term. At our panel we had Omar Offendum, Professor Nasser Rabbat, and brothers Yaman and Bayhas Kana who had made a very short video presentation on a team of dentists who had gone tot he Turkish-Syrian border to help out with dental care. The discussion was interesting and lively and we had questions from many different angles and ethnic sources which made it very interesting. Omar did a very engaging and informative presentation that really put things in perspective and made us all feel the power of individual non-violent activism while holding in high esteem the brave people and fighters of the Free Syrian Army who had to pick up arms in order to defend their women and children at some basic level. Highly recommend the movie which can be requested from www.CuluresofResistance.org.

We also had a Syria souvenir table that evening, a lovely dinner sponsored by the organizers of Walk 4 Children of Syria (Syrian American Alliance) and were able to network and get some really interesting conversations going and met many new friends.

Free Syria Weekend

This past weekend was absolutely amazing, very intense and a result of hundreds of hours of work, but so worth it. All the best and many thanks go to so many of our volunteers, most of whom I won't be mentioning by name. At least I can safely thank Omar Offendum, Amal of Brave New Voices and Dylan Connor, but there were obviously many, many others to thank as well including Zakat Foundation who did an amazing and effortless job with the Sunday fundraiser.

Saturday was our college awareness concert at Wellesley College. Al-Muslimat had put together a wonderful program there that included Offendum, Amal, a Saudi lute player and a very inspiring presentation by Shafi Khan of Muslims Without Borders. We had a bake sale and Syria souvenir table going as well as sale of Offendum's CDs and the income of tickets and raised a decent amount of chunk that was going directly to Muslims Without Borders' efforts in Syria. The event gave enough time for people to hang out and brainstorm and chat after and was a lovely evening overall. That same night UMass Amherst also dedicated their annual Eid dinner to the cause for freedom in Syria and support of the humanitarian efforts there and had the great artist Dylan Connor perform his songs about Syria along with many other presentations. Huda, my daughter,  and her friends set up a Syria table and sold souvenirs for humanitarian aid that brought in over $1,200. I was truly impressed and very encouraged with the interest and support. This amount was separate from other money collected that night and was just an added pat on the back for those of use sending money to sources needing urgent medical care for newly arrived refugees.

Sunday was the formal fundraiser to support the work of Zakat Foundation in Syria and was held in Lowell, MA. I was truly impressed with the venue which was at a former Holiday Inn hotel, had great service and polite staff and very decent pricing and a lovely banquet hall. The food was decent, but not amazing, but that's ok because the sentiment behind the fundraiser was not to cater to people's palates, but to encourage continued support and some monetary giving as well. Evening had a few hiccups as are expected, but overall was a lovely occasion to assemble around a united cause for freedom and prosperity in Syria. Any event is only as good as its guests and we had the best guests and the best sentiment ever.

Sunday the fundraiser began slightly delayed but considering we had to pray maghrib anyways, then it all worked out fine. Everyone was polite and patient and nobody seemed to be annoyed with the delay. The delay was caused by the star performers arriving a bit delayed due to traffic and the brother set to welcome being stuck in traffic as well. We began praying maghrib and were right back on track after salat. The venue had been slightly delayed also in setting up the service and table numbers, something I will have to keep in mind next time and ask them to have everything ready 2 hours before the event and not at the actual time of the start of the event!!

All in all, great evening. Everyone enjoyed the drummer boy for freedom and liberty, had a decent dinner while we saw an informative video on Syria,  listened to our local Sarah present her fascinating poem on Syria,  experienced Amal, were enchanted by Offendum,  mesmerized to the speak of  Hiam,a Syrian American Christian, speak about why we should still support the cause (because people want freedom and simply need our support as they have daily sacrifices). We met a torture victim who had just escaped Syria and then we watched a very touching raw video of a wounded boy from a refugee camp, making istighfar, saying shahadah and letting us all know how his family was attacked with bombs in the night, leaving him an orphan. It was obviously very moving.

Refugee Family Arrives in Boston

A few weeks ago, the community here in New England was able to come together and help a newly arrived family from Syria that really needed help of all kinds. The family has three children and the middle one has a very rare disease and had been getting treatment at the local teaching hospital here. The child was misdiagnosed for many years back in Hama and at the American Hospital in Beirut and had reached a very critical point when the doctors were finally able to pinpoint what the diagnosis might be and refer the child to the hospital here in the US. A doctor from here actually personally traveled to Beirut in December 2010 and diagnosed the child and helped the family get medical visas for treatment in the US that were good for three years. A month later the father arrived with the child and eventually ended up staying here for 8 long months while the child was in intensive care, at one point was hovering near death, and eventually turned much better.

The child Fauzia arrived here very ill and was admitted to the hospital about 2 weeks after arrival. The father had not been working for a few years already as he had been taking care of her full time, taking her from Hama to Beirut for treatment of secondary diseases, getting her medications, and getting her checked. The mother had stayed behind to continue her work as a nurse while also taking care of her older child and 6 month old baby. Fauzia was now here and getting stabilized and prepared to receive a bone marrow transplant - from none other than her sibling. The sibling arrived a few months later with the mother and had the procedure done so Fauzia could have a fair chance of survival. All her treatments were  - and are - experimental due to the rarity of her disease. A younger girl in the room next to her had the similar procedures done and actually died shortly after. The parents of Fauzia were there, witnessing the other family's agonies while their own child was still hovering between life and death.

Month of March after the transplant was really tough. The mother had gone back to Hama to work and take care of her baby who had been left there, the older child was in the US going to school in case they needed anything from him and the father was taking care of Fauzia night and day basically. During that month Fauzia became so severely ill that all the doctors basically expected this to be her end. She was moved to a special section of the hospital and the father had to decide on an hourly basis what kind of care he wanted them to provide her as they were ready to take her off life-support. It was three long, long weeks. The father barely ate or slept. He prayed to Allah and had Quran on in her room. Fauzia was deteriorating, but the father trusted Allah and never gave up hope. Fauzia's mother arrived at the hospital again, this time with a heavy heart and little hope. Honestly when she entered Fauzia's hospital room she could hardly breathe until a most wonderful thing happened. Fauzia had not moved or shown signs of recognition for almost three weeks, but upon hearing her mother's voice she literally opened her eyes. The room was full of the gentle voice of the qari and the love of her mother and father. Fauzi slowly began her recovery and was moved out of the  critical care section where most enter, but do not leave with their eyes still open...

Fauzia became stronger and was released from the hospital in the fall and returned with her father to Beirut. They had to stay in Beirut for several months due to her need for a very close follow up care and the fact that doctors were now a rarity in Syria. Spring of 2012 the father and daughter finally returned home to their family in Hama, just needing bi-weekly follow up appointments and a steady flow of medications as Fauzia needs 5 medications daily. For the first month or two the father and daughter were able to easily visit Beirut for medical care, but suddenly things changed. The father and daughter began being interrogated by the Syrian border patrol for hours when needing to cross back and forth. One time the taxi they were in mysteriously lost its way and they were driving in the desert for four hours, at the mercy of the driver. They were so scared.

Shortly after that kidnapping experience, the father continued to be stopped on the street for checks and interrogations. They were now too scared to try to get to Beirut for check ups and were not able to get the needed medication from inside of Syria. Around this time the father once got taken hostage and out in a tank and he said his shahadah and expected to die. Alhamdulilah, he was let free, but now more scared than ever and more desperate than ever to have access to medical care for Fauzia. Their building got bombed and was no longer safe. At this point their family members urged them to take advantage of the time they still had left on their visa and escape from the war zone and sure death for Fauzia with no access to medical care. With help from family and friends, they managed to escape to Beirut, collect a few important papers from the American Hospital, accept gifts to pay for their tickets and finally arrived here in the New England area middle of September. It had been a long journey and they had no clue what was going to happen now, but at least they were not under bombardment and shelling and worse acts and their daughter had a possibility to get medical care and her medications.

Fauzia and her family arrived in New England on a rainy September afternoon. The father and mother were leaving all their faith in Allah and were sure He would not leave them alone. When they arrived in the airport, then the father was thinking what to do, not having met anyone here except for nurses, doctors and families from abroad with sick children themselves (who had gone back with their child or buried their child if the treatment had failed). The father looked around at the taxi drivers waiting in the airport` and saw a man who looked like a Muslim. He approached him and discovered the brother was from Sudan and obviously spoke Arabic (the father does not speak English). It quickly became obvious that this brother is one of the most generous, open and kind-hearted brothers you might meet and a true gift for the family and eventually for all the people in the community who later heard about how this Sudanese brother Abdul went out of his way to help this family whom he now calls his own.

First Abdul drove around a while with the father and got their story, trying to figure out what to do and where to take the family of five with the little one, a child who needed a clean environment and protection from germs and then the brother. He called his wife who has a newborn baby and she immediately invited the family to stay. Said the Syrian refugee family was their family and that they would figure things out inshallah. Abdul and his wife had been married for over a decade and had just a few weeks earlier been blessed with their first child. To them, meeting Fauzia and her family and being able to extend their hands and hearts was a pleasure and a privilege and they were so thankful to Allah for this opportunity. Abdul was a wonderful host and did everything he could to help the family get some help. Abdul had been in this city for around a year; he was new, but knew a bit about refugees and being under-privileged and where to get help or ask for help as many of  his Sudanese friends also had difficult lives. Abdul worked as a taxi driver and he and his wife had always lived in a one bedroom apartment, but due to the wife's delivery and her mother visiting they had moved to a two bedroom apartment in a cheaper neighbourhood to have more space for the few months the mother in law was visiting. That extra space was a blessing now as Fauzia's family moved in and graciously got offered one bedroom.

We met the Syrian family almost three weeks after their arrival. That's the time it took for our Syrian community to understand there was a family here that needed our care and attention. The family never lacked anything and loved Abdul and his family, but they could obviously not stay forever. Another issue was also that due to Fauzia's fragile health, then she needed to be able to be isolated from germs in order to not get sick and the crowded apartment did not provide that extra space. As a matter of fact, the  her younger brother got ill a few days after they arrived and her mother got very worried about her picking up any germs. Incidentally then Abdul had gotten the family a refugee health insurance card right before the boy got sick, so they could take him to the hospital to get checked out without too many issues.

We received a call about the family from a private social service agency that told us about their case, how they had arrived and about their urgent need to find housing despite having no money. We initially met with them at an ICNA Relief office Monday, got their story and went to the hospital to collect letters from doctors testifying about Fauzia's case while making tons of phone calls looking for housing. We had lunch together while we chatted and tried to brainstorm ideas and ways to help them. That Monday afternoon they went back home with Abdul and we went home, working on getting them an apartment and thinking how to help them  with their visa. We initially thought about applying for the Temporary Protective Status even though it had expired, but found that some of its other requirements were also not met. Further then the TPS would possibly not grant them Green Card, so it did not seem worth pursuing that. To reach that conclusion took a few days of thinking and talking to people. We decided to look into having them apply for asylum and Abdul suggested that a medical asylum application might be a good idea. In any case, then the legal situation of the family was not urgent as their visas were still valid, but their living situation was not so good.

We spoke to a few Syrians and spent perhaps 30 hours brainstorming and looking for ways to help. Our best solution to housing wa at first to rent a house that was available until December and then move into another house, that subhanallah was available from December. A brother had offered to pay the whole rent (and other brothers also offered to help chip in). People here are not necessarily rich, but they take good care of their blessings and like to share if given such a noble cause.Life in America is hard work, but with hard work also comes monetary rewards many times. A few hours before we were signing the contracts for these two apartments, a brother called to say his house was vacant right now (he had been leasing it out, but had no tenants right now) and that he was willing to donate the rent for now so they family would not have to worry for a while at least. It took us a couple of hours to meet up and get the key, but by that Wednesday night the family had moved in. Before I left to get the key and pick up the family from the wonderful Sudanese family then  packed my car with necessities that I found in my house. Pillows, blankets, toys, cleaning supplies and what not. My van was packed. We also stopped by a walmart and got a set of pots and pans, plates and spoons, a few towels etc. Drove an hour, got the key rom this other Syrian brother and drove over and got the family. They were so excited obviously. We got to their house late at night, got everything unloaded and left.

he family was after almost three weeks in the States finally connected with other Syrians and settled in an empty, but safe and lovely town house. They were so grateful and appreciative of their Sudanese brother who had adopted them as his family, but he was now able to plan moving back into a 1-bedroom apartment as he had only been renting a 2-bedroom since his mother in law had been visiting after the birth of his son. This baby was the Sudanese couple's first after 12 years of marriage and a true longing to build their family. 

The sister who picked up the family late at night and brought them to their new place had filled her car with basic necessities and food so the family was not totally left on their own. The next day friends and community from all the area began bringing over a few items. Some people donated money, both small, modest amounts and even a few hundreds and a couple people donated $1,000, just to make sure the family had a bit. A brother got contacted by the owner of a store and they brought the family to his place and were able to furnish their house with basic items, beds and mattresses, living room, kitchen area. Because of Fauzia's immune-compressed health, then they could not bring in used items and had to carefully wash everything before bringing clothes op to the children. A sister in a somewhat close town with young children of her own at home became quickly the family's biggest advocate. She began bringing her children and come over and work on enrolling the two oldest children in school and looked into local food pantries so they could get a steady supply of at least a few items of food.. There were legal papers and medical exams that she and the other helpful brother both worked on and took time out of their own lives to take the family to appointments and so on. The Sudanese brother still kept touch with the family and was overseeing everything even in the middle of finding another place to live (being on a very limited budget and not able to pay for a 2 bedroom apartment even in this low-income neighbourhood). Looking at him, then you would never have guessed he and his family had to count their money before spending it as they had the most generous hearts of anyone, mashallah. 

The family has now been settled for almost one month. One child was able to finally begin school after the needed paperwork was done. Fauzia is still at home, waiting to get some immunizations and medical exams done and will probably end up getting a private teacher visit her daily  in order to avoid exposure to germs. The real work to get them asylum is about to start. The sister who had brought them to their new home, generously offered by a brother and supported by the community, had been working around the clock to try to get them a referral to a pro-bono and respectable legal service that would take the family under their wings and present their case as well as possible and facilitate their visa-process. After two busy weeks with emails, phone-calls and looking on the internet, an American friend used his connections and went out of his way to make sure a pro bono legal office try to take the case. At this time of writing, then their case is being reviewed. It is a bit more complicated than what appears, but we are all hopeful that our American friends and Syrian community here will make the process easy for the family and that they will soon be able to stay here permanently so Fauzia can get a chance at recovering and living with stable medical care at least until Syria is safe and back stronger than ever.

Syria

What is going on in Syria? Why do we hear the words Revolution and Freedom and see all those images of killed children, burned families, murdered men, destroyed cities, and on and on? Is this for real?

The Syrian Revolution started in March 2011 when a group of boys ages 9-13 wrote some graffiti on the walls of their school in the town of Daraa. The boys had daringly written: "The People Want the Regime to Fall".The kids had gotten inspiration from hearing that other Arab countries were reaching out for freedom and their regimes actually fell to the voices and protests of their people. What happened in Syria would turn out to be different and worse, much worse than any rational person would ever imagine. The small group of boys got arrested in the middle of the night while they were at home sleeping. They got violently taken from their beds to the cries and begging please of their mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. Nearly all the boys were returned a week or so later, thrown onto their families' door steps, their dead bodies dumped, unrecognizable from extreme torture and inhumane conditions. Hamza Al-Khateeb was one of these boys. He was 13 and was mutilated severely, castrated alive, and suffered to die. 

The Syrian regime was expecting compliance and for their every day to go on like always. This particular instance of civil resistance and their reaction really was nothing out of the ordinary to them. 30 years earlier in Hama in 1982 3-400 men had begun planning for an actual coup of the Assad regime and when the government found out they retaliated right away and began killing men and boys and raping women. The official number of killed males is around 20,000, but locals say the number is closer to double that. The people had gotten killed quickly and mercilessly at a rate of 700-1,000 males pr. day for a month. And then it was over. Silence filled the air and people were stuck in fear for the next three decades until a group of kids followed their guts and wrote on those school walls what millions of Syrians have been hoping forever would happen.

Nobody, but mindless people, like to live like followers and mistreated, suppressed inhabitants -and the Syrian people are not different. Yes, fear can terrorize and freeze you - until a certain point. That point was reached when the Assad regime lashed their disgusting anger and need for total power over those young boys with dreams of free air and free thoughts. The men of Daraa began protesting back then in March 2011 and people began picking up on their bravery and the inexcusable deaths of those boys (and soon so many more innocent souls to come) and came out in rallies. Non-violent resistance for the world. For the world to see and hear -except the world did not want to hear nor did the world want to listen and see... Most of those rallies were actually highly instrumented with cars circling around on the look out for regime scouts and killers and most took place at night. Many took place in broad daylight and many rallies, peaceful, chanting groups of people asking for freedom, were literally met by machine guns being fired directly at them. The bravery of the Syrian people has turned out to be a lesson for the whole world to learn from. The protests still take place, but now they are not asking for the regime to please give them rights or make new elections. Now they are demanding the sitting ruler to get off and get lost and for freedom and democracy to be the basis for their country.
The Syrian People's Revolution for Freedom has really mostly been led by the children. The children have been the most sensitive victims and the cruelest receivers of the regime's anger, yet, the people of Syria are determined to not let fear rule them anymore, but freedom and pride. While the people of Syria love moderation and believe in civil resistance and the voices and acts of non-violence, then young men and defectors from the Syrian army began organizing their own army back in July called the Free Syrian Army. FSA was initially barely armed, but they were determined to do everything possible and more to defend their women, children, and families. Women were by that point being raped while their fathers and family members were forced to watch, boys and men were detained and sexually molested and raped for the sake of humiliation and destruction of the individual, snipers became a feature everywhere, targeting children playing on their porches or pregnant women inside their homes. I am not even making this up, that's the sad part....

Syrians are a very moderate people. However, if the world keeps on watching, then at some point something will click and radical forces will start being welcomed into the country to protect and defend their people from the vengeful, hateful regime sitting now. Let's not get to that point. Please, make your free voice heard and support the Syrians in getting democracy and getting some peace of mind.

Vigil for Ambassador Stevens

It was late Wednesday afternoon when a young, energetic activist called me up and suggested Boston do their share to honor Ambassador Stevens who hours earlier had been killed senselessly by some apparent Muslim militants or extremists - either reacting to a degrading video about Islam and our Prophet Muhammad or executing a pre-planned hateful act. In either case, then we saw an opportunity to bring the message of peace and moderation into the limelight with a focus on the quest for freedom in Syria similar to the Libyan people's journey, albeit protracted and much more violent, while honoring a true statesman and exemplary human being. Ambassador Stevens died on the ground of a people he loved and respected and who loved and respected him.

I called up a few fellow Syrian activists and most importantly my dear friend and respected human rights activist Blake Parker and everyone was on board. Boston could do this thing. I also contacted a few media outlets and amazingly enough then we found out that the cable network NECN decided to attend (and did a fabulous piece on the vigil) from the mere website contact I did (not via a personal email or anything). That was impressive and showed us that it never hurts to just try and contact people and entities because it might just pay off. We actually also had coverage by Fox News and one single Boston Globe reporter who merely took a picture with text under.

Friends showed up, Syrians, Libyans, other nationalities as well as Cambridge folks who had actually known Ambassador Stevens and could attest to his humanity and character and dedication for freedom. I have to honestly admit that there was some initial confusion as the organizer of the event (moi) had never done a vigil before, but Blake and a few friends set up a place with flowers and candles and got the dedication under way while I was busy being in the limelight, pretending to know what I was talking about. Well, I do know what I am talking about, but it is still a bit intimidating to be representing not only yourself but by default all Muslims in the New England area while wanting to insert the message of freedom and liberty for the people of Syria.

One of our very respected and well-spoken members Dr. Omar Salem had been selected to give a speech that I had put together from different other activists' input. He did edit it slightly, but the point is that it was a work of collaboration and it beautifully summed up how we all felt:


As members of the Syrian-American community, we are proud to join with our friends from the Libyan-American community and so many other Americans in protesting these senseless attacks  of the past couple of days and showing our solidarity with all of those who are committed to a peaceful future for the Middl

e East.

The Syrian American community condemns in the strongest possible terms the tragic attacks in Libya and Egypt. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Ambassador Stevens and the other three U.S. diplomats senselessly killed in Benghazi.

We are deeply grateful for the courage and the selfless dedication that these heroes and so many other members of the U.S. diplomatic corps have shown in Libya, Syria, and throughout the region during this turbulent period of the Arab Spring and the ongoing Revolution in Syria.

Let us be absolutely clear: These violent acts do not reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians,  and others throughout the Middle East who are committed to religious tolerance and building a peaceful and democratic future for the region.

   The US played a vital role in saving Benghazi from destruction at the hands of Muammar Gaddafi, in hastening an end to his regime and in the transition to a government that reflects the will of the Libyan people. Those actions reflect the very best of what America stands for.

Reports indicate that those who killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens did so as a reaction to a video depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a profane manner. Although we believe that this video is hateful and bigoted, this should never be an excuse to commit any acts of violence whatsoever. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is loved and respected by hundreds of millions of people across the world, and no one can take this from our hearts. No one should fall into the trap of those who wish to incite anger. The Prophet (peace be upon him) should be our example in everything we do. Even though he was attacked and insulted many times throughout his life, Prophet Muhammad always reacted with compassion and forgiveness, never with revenge or violence.

As we work to end the brutal rule of the Assad regime and foster the transition to a free and democratic Syria, we reaffirm our longstanding commitment to creating a new nation based on the principles of peaceful coexistence and respect for human rights.

For those curious about the coverage on NECN, watch it here.