{"id":177752,"date":"2017-05-08T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T11:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scm.bz\/main-stories\/handmade-dolls-bring-hidden-tales-of-war-torn-syria-to-life.html"},"modified":"2018-04-11T14:09:16","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T12:09:16","slug":"handmade-dolls-bring-hidden-tales-of-war-torn-syria-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scm.bz\/en\/handmade-dolls-bring-hidden-tales-of-war-torn-syria-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Handmade dolls bring hidden tales of war-torn Syria to life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beirut family works with refugees to share stories of ordinary Syrians caught up in conflict through dolls that carry their names.<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n
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Amina, a 56-year old Syrian refugee, with the dolls she makes in Shatila camp, Lebanon.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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By:\u00a0Dana Sleiman, Rima Cherri and Houssam Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Inside one of the countless low-rise buildings in the Shatila refugee camp, Amina, a 56-year old Syrian refugee, meticulously embroiders fish scales onto cotton fabric.<\/h3>\n
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A thin concrete wall separates her from the hustle and bustle of Lebanon\u2019s decades-old Palestine refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which has received a new wave of refugees from Syria since the beginning of the country\u2019s conflict in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am embroidering a fish. It captures the story of a family\u2019s dream to travel,\u201d said Amina. \u201cThey have a little girl who is afraid of travelling. Why? Because she is scared she would drown in the sea and be eaten by the fish.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

In April last year, the Mousalli family \u2013 a Lebanese father, Syrian mother, and their daughters Marianne and Melina \u2013 decided to bring the stories and dreams of Syrian mothers in war-torn Aleppo closer to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach doll holds the name of the person whose story it carries.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Through a relative who remains in Syria, they collect the stories of ordinary Syrians, then turn them into sketches and have them embroidered onto cotton dolls by Syrian refugee women.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach doll holds the name of the person whose story it carries,\u201d explained Marianne, as she held up one of the dolls. \u201cThis is Adreyeh. She comes from Aleppo. Her son Hassan dreams about rebuilding his house in his village. So we embroidered his dream house here.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Entitled \u2018The Ana Collection\u2019 \u2013 the word \u2018Ana\u2019 means \u2018me\u2019 in Arabic \u2013 the project seeks to address the hidden pain of Syrians who remain inside a country ravaged by war, through art and self-expression.<\/p>\n

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The project has helped create a \u201cfull circle of empowerment,\u201d says Marianne.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cToday most of what we see on TV is focused on the idea of a war in Syria,\u201d explained Marianne. \u201cWe often forget that there are people who still live there, and that they have stories to tell. It\u2019s not that people don\u2019t care, but they see a big war, they don\u2019t see individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project has brought out two collections: \u2018From Inside Aleppo\u2019 and \u2018The Holiday Collection,\u2019 in which children from Aleppo expressed their wishes for Christmas. It is currently working on a third, \u2018Stories from the Bekaa\u2019, relating stories and dreams from refugees living in the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people buy these dolls for their children,\u201d said Marianne. \u201cWhen a child carries a doll named Hamida, his parents tell him \u2018Hamida is your age, she wants to return to her house and play with her friends.\u2019 This makes it much easier to relate to.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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