Past Projects

A brief description of Sawiyan’s past projects and initiatives from 2017- Present.

Skateboarding, social inclusion, and community-safe space making w/ 7Hills Skate Park.

A program that brought young Sudanese/Somali refugees and Jordanian youth from Amman, to a local public park to learn skateboarding and connect with other youth. The project also provided a safe space for their families to connect and spend time with one another outside, and provided an early oppurtunity for new, fresh volunteers to get to know Sawiyan’s community members and leadership in an informal setting.

‘House of hope’ play & short film w/ Seenaryo.

The ‘House of Hope’, was a play and short film bringing together 22 Jordanian, Sudanese, Yemeni and Somali woman from Amman in a ‘democratic collaboration’ to create a devised theatre piece giving voice to the real day-to-day issues they face.

Inclusive Socities Project

Funded through the Canadian Government’s CFLI program, the inclusive societies project helped create space for dialogue between Sudanese, Somali, Palestinian, and Jordanian women living in East Amman, where they reflected on key issues in their communities, learn about the power of combining their social networks, taking part in both community and art therapy workshops, and forged strong bonding ties.

One Refugee Approach Working Group

Sawiyan co-led the formation of the first One Refugee Approach Working Group. Sawiyan co-founder Aaron Williams co-chaired the working group of now 30+ humanitarian organizations from 2019-2021 where we worked to ensure that the response plans, humanitarian programming, and annual donor accounts in Jordan would not be discriminate, impartial, and would adhere with the now mainstreamed ‘One Refugee Approach’. Working alongside humanitarian partners, we oversaw advocacy that led to real change in perspective, humanitarian approach, and policy at the humanitarian, donor, and local levels. Upon our departure in June of 2021 the One Refugee Approach Working Group was formally adopted under the formal working group canopies of the UN and Jordan iNGO Forum.

Learn more about Sawiyan’s history with the One Refugee Approach Working Group and other advocacy initiatives in a report written by Aaron in 2023, for Locally Led, provided below.

Community-led English language program

In late 2018, Sawiyan board member Dr. Shireen Keyl, Sudanese community teacher Mobarak Adam and Somali community teacher Hassan Abdullahi joined forces to develop an English language program that would be run by volunteer teachers among the community, with the assistance of native speakers. They set out to find nearby community-based organisations in different neighborhoods to hold the classes, where a successful collaboration materialized with House of Hope in Jabal Amman neighborhood, and HelpAge International in Jabal Weibdeh neighborhood.

A transformational community-informed pedagogy was integrated into the formation of our community-led English language program shortly after the program was piloted. These English language classes are spaces where teachers and students learn together. It is also a place where texts, passages and readings chosen for the different levels (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate) contain elements of racial empowerment for community members with Sudanese, Somali, Ghanian, and Afro-Jordanian origins. Over the past three years, co-founders of this project Mr. Mobarak Adam from Sudan and Mr. Hassan Abdullahi from Somalia developed study books for the beginner, elementary and pre-intermediate levels that address the needs of our refugee community.

With class sizes rapidly growing, Mubarak and Hassan continue to add more classes and recruit and train new teachers in Sawiyan’s transformational pedagogy. Sawiyan’s reach now transcends boundaries, also offering remote classes open to anyone, regardless of location. Recent courses have had students from around the region, and even Europe and North America.

You can read more about the impact of Sawiyan’s community-led lanugage program in Sawiyan co-founder Dina Baslan’s article for the Forced Migration Review discussing the power of the Sawiyan community’s informal network building and daily acts of resistance here and in this UNHCR (The UN High Commission for Refugees) article.

Running camp w/ Nina Brekelmens Camp For Girls

Sawiyan was proud to partner with the Nina Brekelmans Running Camp for Girls, an annual camp that aims to cultivate girls' self-confidence, leadership, and well-being through running! Over the spring, girls from Sawiyan participated in this camp, which culminates in a final race at the end of April.

Leadership development, acting, and creative expression w/ Seenaryo

Through our long standing partnership with Seenaryo سيناريو, Sawiyan community members have participated in plays, films and taken leadership development, acting, and playwriting workshops. One of our more meaningful partnerships over the years.

‘Knowing Your Rights’ Awareness Sessions, Resettement Education, and Better Parenting classes w/ War Child Canada, ARDD, IRAP, Un Ponte Per, and United Nations OCHA.

Sawiyan worked with partners to provide a variety of educational workshops over the years. With War Child we were able to provide parenting skills training for members of the Sudanese and Jordanian community. The interactive training allowed families to share about their experiences of raising their children, learn from the parenting experiences/challenges of their fellow participants, and learn from the War Child team a variety of different ways to deal with the challenges and responsibility parenting requires.

With ARDD we were able to educate Sudanese, Somali, and Yemeni refugees on the their rights and access to legal protection in Jordan.

Finally, through a longstanding partnership with IRAP, Sawiyan was able to help refugees understand every step of the resettlement process, starting form status determination all the way up until the time they travel.

The Sawiyan Cup.

Sawiyan was proud to partner with the Sudanese community to present the first annual Sawiyan Cup, A community-led football tournament led by the Sudanese community in Jordan and sponsored by Sawiyan.

Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment of refugees in Jordan w/ World Food Programme.

Over 2018-2019 Sawiyan was asked to assist and advise the World Food Programme - WFP on its Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment of refugees in Jordan. The assessment was a groundbreaking one, as it was the first WFP food security/vulnerability assessment in Jordan to include Sudanese, Somali, and Yemeni refugees. Not only was the report the first of its kind, but it also provided some of the most in-depth data on the vulnerability and challenges of non-Syrian refugees.

‘Rights of Refugees From Countries Other Than Syria’ report w/ Rochelle Johnston, Anna Kvittingen, and Norwegian Refugee Council.

Sawiyan helped facilitate and organize a report led by co-founder Dina Baslan, researcher Rochelle Johnston, and Anna Verley's report: "Realizing the rights of asylum seekers and refugees in Jordan from countries other than Syria with a focus on Yemenis and Sudanese".

In the midst of the massive Syrian refugee response, refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan and Yemen have been denied rights and services in Jordan because of their nationality. The study describes the impact this has had on their well-being and identifies critical needs for programming in shelter, education, protection, livelihoods, health and food security. It recommends programming approaches that promote community development, social inclusion, and heal relationships between these populations and organizations serving refugees.

The report was a critical initial asset to those of us working tirelessly to push countries and aid organizations alike to live up to the "one refugee approach" --that believes aid/assistance should be based vulnerability and not nationality--as well as being a report that shed's light on the unique challenges Yemeni and Sudanese populations face while living displaced in Jordan.

Sudanese Art Exhibition w/ House of Dreaming

In September 2019, Sawiyan community leaders and activists partnered with the House of Dreaming to host the Sudan Art Exhibition, part of a series of global exhibitions showcasing the work of 7 Sudanese digital artists and photographers. The exhibition celebrated Sudanese people, art, music, cusine, and culture.

Social Networks in Refugee Response w/ Rochelle Johnstone, Anna Kvittingen, Simon Verduijn, and Mixed Migration Center

Sawiyan collaborated on another important piece of research on Sudanese and Yemeni refugees in Jordan with the Mixed Migration Center. In the report, Sawiyan family members Rochelle Johnston, Anna Verley, Dina Baslan and MMC's Simon Verduijn examine why humanitarian response actors should learn about and respectfully engage with the social networks of refugees and asylum seekers to better meet humanitarian needs.

Anti-Racism Short Film ‘BAN BAN’ W/ Husam Abed, Szilard Gergely.

Directed by Husam Abed and Szilard Gergely, Sawiyan’s short film ‘Ban Ban’ sheds light on the struggle of alienation, daily harassment and rejection that some Sudanese face due to racial discrimination. The film tells the story of Amman’s 7Hills Skatepark where a Sudanese refugee community built a safe environment filled with genuine relationships of friendship and love.

The film debuted at the Karama Film Festival in 2019.

WUSC refugee scholarship, alternative pathways program.

Sawiyan collaborated with WUSC to provide information and awareness sessions with interested refugee students from the Sudanese and Somali communities. WUSC is a unique Canadian alternative pathways program that offers university education and resettlement in Canada for refugees of all nationalities aged between 18 and 25.

Harvard Kennedy School’s Leadership, Organizing and Action course w/ Professor Marshall Ganz

Sawiyan collaborated with Ahel أهل, opening the Harvard Kennedy School’s Leadership, Organizing and Action course developed by Professor Marshall Ganz to our community leaders and volunteer group. The 15-week executive online course is designed to help students learn how to organize communities that can mobilize power to make change.

In 2019, five Sawiyan members (Sudanese and Jordanian students) were enrolled in the program with the generous support from Ahel, and in 2020 one of our Somali volunteers participated.

Community research training for Sawiyan Community Research Group.

Sawiyan trained refugee community-leads and volunteers in research skills and launched our first team of community researchers who would later help us build the structure and foundations of our decolonizing research group and shed light on our communities lives, experiences and needs.

Cultural awareness training for humanitarian, mental health, and youth service providers w/ center for Victims of Torture, Collateral Repair Project, and Reclaim Childhood.

Sudanese community leaders gave presentations to three partner humanitarian organizations on Sudanese culture and the lived experience of people of African origins in Jordan. These presentations came upon the request of our partners who expressed the need to fill the gaps in their staff’s cultural knowledge about Sudan and Sudanese people and to integrate the knowledge gained into their outreach to these communities.

Covid-19 education, support network development, and solidarity.

In light of the difficult COVID-19 conditions during the pandemic, the Sawiyan family tried to creatively adjust through focusing on the importance of social solidarity and looking for safe ways to support one another by sharing our collective, communal knowledge. Every Friday (which was a day of full lockdown in Amman), Sawiyan held Zoom meetings for our volunteers to join us from their homes and share information, news and the feelings we had about the changes taking place around us.

We also provided presentations from board members and mental health specialists from the Sawiyan community that provided helpful insight on how to cope and keep ourselves safe.

Research and training on child protection and child neglect w/ University of Bath.

In 2021, our community research team started a new collaboration with the University of Bath looking to better understand issues relating to child protection and child neglect. This partnership provided more research training and experience for our community members and produced a wide-reaching piece of research that provided one of a kind insight to practitioners, researchers, humanitarians, and service providers.

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.