For Syria

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

AYAT AL KURSI

BORDER CROSSING

MEHR

EYE OF THE GARDEN

AHLAN WA SAHLAN

MAHMOUD DARWISH

5 x 7 CARDS

LORD’S PRAYER, Syriac

SHALOM SALAAM, Hebrew, Arabic

THIS TOO SHALL PASS, Arabic

LADY SUN (Khorshid Khanom)

AHLAN WA SAHLAN, Arabic

MOUNTAINS

‘ESHQ (LOVE), Arabic

ONE-OF-A-KIND ORIGINALS

PEACOCK ANGEL

LORD’S PRAYER, Syriac

LORD’S PRAYER, Syriac

SHALOM SALAAM

SALAAM TILE

SHALOM SALAAM

LORD HAVE MERCY, ARMENIAN

AYAT AL-KURSI

SHALOM SALAAM

MY JOURNEY

THE LAMP

JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS

BUTEH in inlay frame

BISMALLAH

BLESSED ARE THE BROKEN- HEARTED

Safin Hamed, Getty Images

I selected the IRC because of their 95% ranking with Charity Navigator, percent of funds that are spent on programs (92.5%), and their ability to work directly with people in the countries with the largest number of Syrian refugees.

I remember refugees sleeping in people’s homes and schools when I was a child. I grew up in Iran, and while Iran itself was a peaceful place, people fled from conflicts in Iraq, Oman, Syria and Lebanon. Later there would be millions of people fleeing into Iran from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the wars that followed.

Like Syria, the neighborhood of my childhood was a diverse place. Within a few blocks were an Armenian church, Zoroastrian temple and Persian-speaking Protestant church, all with their associated schools; a synagogue, several mosques, and at the north end of the street the massive embassy of the Soviet Union, the red flag waving against the backdrop of Tehran’s snow-capped mountains. The embassy is now that of Russia, but the remaining institutions carry on.

Syrian refugees wait on the Syrian side of the border near Sanliurfa, Turkey, June 10. Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, says the United States should welcome Syrian refugees and work for peace. (CNS photo/Sedat/Suna, EPA) See ELIZONDO-REFUGEES Nov. 17, 2015.

The refugees fleeing Syria today are university students, young parents, teachers, engineers, farmers, shop keepers, film makers, pregnant women and children. They are fleeing violence that is tearing apart a society that for over one thousand years has included an astounding diversity of peoples intermingled into a multi-religious, multilingual society.

While it is my hope that Syria can come together again in the future, for now it is the reality that ordinary people—no different from you and your neighbors—are fleeing a proxy war in which nations spread across the world are vying with one another in the villages and urban streets of Syria.

For a sampling of the diversity of Syria:
Languages: Arabic, Syriac, Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, Azari (Turkoman), Circassian and Aramaean.
Religions: Suni, Shi’ite, Ismaili, and Alawite Muslims;
Syrian Orthodox, Maronite, Chaldean, Levantine and Protestant Christians; Yazidis; Druze; Jews; and Nusairis.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that:
• Nearly 12% of the population of Syria has been killed in the last five years;
• Over half of the population of 22 million is in urgent need of humanitarian aid;
• 6.5 million people are living in refugee camps or otherwise displaced within Syria;
• 4.8 million Syrians are refugees outside of Syria, primarily in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, with 1 million having fled to the European Union in 2015.

Resources:
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
IRC in Miami, Florida
United Nations High Commission for Refugees
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
International Committee of the Red Cross
Oxfam International

UN Refugee Camp, Lebanon; Bulent Kilic, Getty Images