News
Sawiyan advocates for greater support of refugee-led initatives and education reform at the Global Refugee Forum 2023.
Sawiyan’s Mubarak Adam represented Sawiyan at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum. With world leaders meeting to make decisions that will affect the lives of refugees, Mubarak conveyed the critical need for refugees themselves to be key actors in these decisions, not passive beneficiaries.
Through Sawiyan’s partnership with R-SEAT, Mubarak was among eleven refugee leaders that shared their recommendations and insights based on their experience working for the displaced communities they serve.
Mubarak, also the co-founder of Sawiyan’s Community-Led Language program, presented Sawiyan’s position and recommendations to the Forum that states should do more to remove the financial, language, and cultural barriers that prevent refugee children and youth from enrolling and participating in formal education systems.
“We urge states to take refugee-led informal education initiatives seriously and recognise refugees as givers to their communities, host states and the overall international community.”
In addition to this Mubarak, known affectionately as ‘Ricky’ among our community members, spoke about the critical need to invest in vocational training for refugees, migrants and undocumented individuals in Jordan who don’t have access to the University system.
We at Sawiyan believe that the way we think about and create systems of aid, protection, and advocacy for refugees needs to change, if not be entirely rebuilt. We are grateful that Mubarak had this opportunity represent the voices and needs of our extended Sawiyan family and liveout the kind of approach to policy development/reform that we believe in—an approach driven and owned by the communities most affected by humanitarian crisis our collective reaction to them.
Due to Mubarak’s status as a Sudanese refugee, he had to present his recommendations virtually/remotely. Though we are grateful for this opportunity, we hope for a day when refugee leaders can be given the same kind of travel visas/exceptions to attend these Forums that our humanitarian counterparts from the Global North often receive. For how can we truly call for a decolinization of aid, or locally-led aid system, or claim to be empowering refugees to have a real stake in the policy making process, if they can’t benefit from the social capital, face to face exposure, and organic relationship making that takes place for the stakeholders who can freely attend?
Sawiyan and Seenaryo collaborate on ‘House of Hope’ production.
‘House of Hope’ is a theater production and short film by an ensemble of non-professional actors brought together by Seenaryo in partnership with Sawiyan.
Through an applied theatre model of practice known as ‘democratic collaboration’, 22 Jordanian, Sudanese, Yemeni and Somali women, all living in Amman, Jordan, came together to create this devised theatre piece.
The group began rehearsing online over Zoom in September 2020 and throughout the Covid-19 lockdown period. Once the lockdown lifted, in person rehearsals began in small groups and finally the piece was filmed over 3 days in February 2021. Adapting to the limitations and challenges that the pandemic presented, what was envisaged as a theatre performance became a combination of theatre meeting film. The final product in the form of a short film will be premiering online on March 29th 2021.
The final script gives voice to real life stories these women chose to share, built upon and developed through improvisation and participatory devising techniques. What we see in the short film sheds light on experiences that these women and many others face in Jordan today. Where do they need to look to find safety and hope – and what else can be done to make sure there is this light at the end of the tunnel?
Sawiyan and 7 Hills Skatepark's project featured on Al Jazeera English.
Al Jazeera English did an awesome video piece on our weekly skateboarding program for Sudanese youth with 7 Hills Skatepark.
Sawiyan partners with UN OCHA and Un Ponte Per to provide awareness sessions, trainings for members of the Sudanese refugee and Jordanian host community
Awareness sessions on better parenting skills, mental health coping strategies, legal services, and resettlement awareness trainings were provided to participants through partnerships with War Child Canada, the Center for Victims of Torture, ARDD/Legal Aid, and others.
For the first time ever, World Food Programme includes non-Syrians in it’s “Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment”.
Initial findings show Sudanese and Somali populations most food-insecure. WFP invites Sawiyan to speak at the report’s launch event.
Sawiyan completes six-month “ The Inclusive Societies Project” through the support of the Canadian Embassy
The “Inclusive Societies Project” created a space for Sudanese and Jordanian women to learn from each other and address issues that influence their everyday experiences, such as race and women’s roles in their communities.