Summer workshops in Lebanon

Our Summer workshops in Lebanon are coming soon!
Want to volunteer with the #ChildrenOfSyria next 24-30 August? Apply now to join Project Amal ou Salam.
If you’re a returning volunteering, just let us know via email. Please use the subject: “Workshops L19”
If you’re applying for the first time, please send your CV & a motivation letter 
To: projectamalousalam@gmail.com 
Subject: “Volunteer application L19 – Name Surname”
Tell us how you learnt about us, why you want to volunteer with us and what personal contribution you want to bring to our work.
We will review applications as they come in, therefore, first come, first served will apply.

Deadline: 14 July 2019

More info about volunteering with us here.

Keep spreading the love!

 

Together we can be enough – Guest post by Sam Harrington

Sam Harrington

A few days ago I stood at customs. Tired from 30 hours of transatlantic travel, annoyed by the 20 minute wait, I crossed that line as easy as breathing.

Why do I get to come home so easily?

I have often bemoaned how difficult it is to love a place so fractured as America. But what must the heartbreak be to love a place so fractured it pushes you out in waterfall of tears and tells you it is not safe to return.

These thoughts bubbled up at customs as I rounded the last leg of a journey that brought me to Project Amal ou Salam to volunteer with kids displaced and exiled during the Syrian conflict. At the outset of the trip, I stood at another border, in another airport. “Welcome back to Jordan,” said the man behind the desk as he scribbled in my passport.

“Finally,” I grinned back at him.

The last time I was in Amman, it was late-summer 2014. The war next door had been raging for three years, and somewhere between 640,000 and a million Syrians had sought refuge within Jordan. The country wasn’t quite sure what kind of host it wanted to be.Sam Harrington

Driving the highway from the airport to Amman, I pressed my face against the window and wondered how much had changed. I’d been looking for a way to return to Amman from the moment I left four years ago. But now that I was back, the city felt like a stranger.

When I signed on to work with Project Amal ou Salam, I did so not knowing much more than that volunteering would give me the chance to provide Syrian kids with a day to laugh and play and explore their world.

I was nervous, of course. The last time I was in any kind of teaching role, I was in high school and helping kids learn how to stand up on ice skates. The kids of Syria deserve so much more than what the world has given them. I was afraid I wouldn’t be enough.

But I didn’t have to be. I was one of 30 volunteers, and together we could be enough. Together we could have fun, maintain order, and create a space in which every kid had a safe, memorable and joyful day.

The work I did never felt out-of-the-ordinary. I spent time in the photography workshop teaching kids how to find the best light to take a photo of their friend, counting cameras and making silly faces when the lenses got pointed my way.

Every night after workshops, I passed out in minutes, never giving myself time to reflect on each day. And every morning, I’d wake up and still wonder if I was doing enough. But a week removed from the day-to-day work, I can see how meaningful every moment was. When I look back on the hundreds of smiling kids, I know that those days were full of love, solidarity and hope.

Sam Harrington

At times the world feels like it happens to you – like it’s all so far beyond your control. It is particularly easy to feel that way about conflicts like Syria’s, in which decision-making seems to happen in rooms towering above the people who face the greatest ramifications.

It can feel like it would take a superhuman to make a difference. But that’s not true.

There are choices we can make every single day – ordinary choices – to give ourselves hope and to spread that hope to others. So get to work. No matter where you are or how small you feel, there is space here to build a better world. And whether you’re an Amal ou Salam volunteer or supporter from afar, you know that the future will be lit by the dreams and aspirations of these incredibly resilient children. I’m not sure I’ve ever believed in anyone so fiercely as I do the kids I met through Amal ou Salam.

There is trauma here. Loss here. Fear and anger here. But there is also hope here.

There will be peace here

— Thanks Sam for:
– volunteering with us
– being such an amazing person
– writing a beautiful guest post for Project Amal ou Salam
– providing these stunning illustrations

-Project Amal ou Salam Team

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS – Lebanon 2017

volunteer lebanon

Project Amal ou Salam’s next workshops will be in Lebanon26-31 August.

We’ve become a lot more than just a programme. I think we’ve become a movement of people who share the same beliefs and share the same ideology. You’re always thinking what can I offer to Syria? I think Project Amal ou Salam is giving people a way to take their own expertise and give that to the kids. Which is so refreshing and rewarding.

(Nousha Kabawat, founder&director)

If you want to join our movement and work with our team and with the Children of Syria, apply by sending an email to projectamalousalam@gmail.com with your CV and a motivation letter. Make sure you tell us:

  • how you heard about us
  • why you want to volunteer with us
  • what you think you can bring to Project Amal ou Salam and our children

Deadline’s 15 July.

Twice a year, around 30 international volunteers gather from all over the world to join Project Amal ou Salam and the Children of Syria in working for peace.

We organise five volunteer-run workshops for kids aged 5 to 14: arts, music, photography, sports and health. Click here to learn more about our workshops.

Keep spreading the love! ♥