Project

The “Journey of Halima” is a book to keep the refugee-children company on their own journey from Greece to their destination countries, a journey that may remind them of the homeland they have left behind. They may see something of their own journey in Halima’s adventures; or, perhaps, even something of their new homes.

We searched for, found and studied traditional Syrian folk tales, and wrote about the journey of Halima who wants to reach the Land of Rain, in order to bring the rainclouds back to her land, the Land of the Sun, where there is a terrible drought, and where the people are no longer happy. In order to reach the Land of Rain, Halima has to go through many countries where she makes many new friends.

With ‘The Journey of Halima’, apart from entertaining the children, we want to give them some moments of empowerment and hope. We have removed all violence often present in folk tales. There is no “bad guy” and all people are kind. There are no kings or princesses and there are no religious references. Special care has been taken to create a story that is modern, multicultural and intercultural, under the guidance of academics specializing in this field.

We searched for, found and studied traditional Syrian folk tales, and wrote about the journey of Halima who wants to reach the Land of Rain, in order to bring the rainclouds back to her land, the Land of the Sun, where there is a terrible drought, and where the people are no longer happy. In order to reach the Land of Rain, Halima has to go through many countries where she makes many new friends.

With ‘The Journey of Halima’, apart from entertaining the children, we want to give them some moments of empowerment and hope. We have removed all violence often present in folk tales. There is no “bad guy” and all people are kind. There are no kings or princesses and there are no religious references. Special care has been taken to create a story that is modern, multicultural and intercultural, under the guidance of academics specializing in this field.

The book is divided into four units. The first unit is illustrated and addressed to young readers. The following units are interactive: in the second unit, children can colour in the images of the heroes/heroines; in the third they can use the lines to write their own stories and thoughts; the fourth unit will contain empty pages for drawing and painting. Each book will be accompanied by crayons and a pen, packaged for protection and easy distribution.

The book will be made available free of charge in a printed and electronic version. The printed version will be distributed to refugee children during their stay in Greece. The story will be trilingual, written in Syrian Arabic, Persian Language (Farsi) and English (as the lingua franca). The electronic version of the story (PDF) will also be trilingual, in a combination of various languages, into which it will be translated (Syrian – Persian Language – Greek, Syrian – Persian Language – German, etc.). These e-books will be available to download from the project website and could be printed in the language desired. The printed story will be in asmall page format, so that it may easily fit into a child’s backpack or their guardian’s luggage without adding any extra weight.

The small theatrical will be performed daily in the refugee camps near Thessaloniki or where it is needed. It will be a performance of the story of Halima, without words, and approximately lasting to 45 minutes. It will be fully designed with all the costumes and sets, custom made masks, music written for the show and four to five actors working for it. The theatrical show of Halima, will be a part of the whole project and will be another form of fund rising in order to support the book printing.