SUFFERING CHILDREN

‘EVERYBODY’S PROBLEM,’ SYRIA EVENT LEADERS SAY

Hamsa Newmark, from left, Moshe Newmark, Andrea Love and Mohja Kahf with the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology talk during a planning meeting in front of the Peace Fountain at the Town Center Plaza in Fayetteville on Wednesday. Fayetteville is one of 26 cities in the U.S. chosen to participate in a “Stand for the Kids of Syria” event on Nov. 17.
Hamsa Newmark, from left, Moshe Newmark, Andrea Love and Mohja Kahf with the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology talk during a planning meeting in front of the Peace Fountain at the Town Center Plaza in Fayetteville on Wednesday. Fayetteville is one of 26 cities in the U.S. chosen to participate in a “Stand for the Kids of Syria” event on Nov. 17.

— Winter is coming.

Children who have lost homes and more are about to face the cold in refugee camps. Winters in Syria and surrounding countries are short but intense, said Mohja Kahf of Fayetteville, who was born in Damascus.

Thousands of Syrian children are among the 348,000 registered refugees driven into neighboring countries by civil strife, according to United Nations tallies - tallies that the U.N. now describe as partial. Cold will be the latest hardship these children will face during suff ering that started almost two years ago and has no end in sight, said Kahf.

Few native Syrians live in Fayetteville. That lack of a large Syrian population is a part of why this city was among thefirst locations selected to host a “Stand for the Children of Syria” event on Nov. 17, Kahf said: Organizers intend to reach across ethnic, political and religious lines.

“This is everybody’s problem,” said Kahf, one of the Fayetteville organizers. “Look at our local co-sponsors. We have groups on the left and right, peace groups, churches and businesses. So many groups want to hold an event here. That is a refl ection of a very caring community. Thisis strictly a humanitarian event.

It is not saying we support the revolution. This is about children suff ering.”

The event will be from 2 to 3 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Fayetteville Town Center plaza at the town square. If you are opposed to needless suffering by children, you are welcome, said Mahmouk Khattab of Elk Grove, Calif.

Khattab is chairman of the Syrian American Council, the organizer of the “Walk for the Children of Syria” effort to raise awareness and money for refugee children.

The list of U.S. cities with events had grown to 26 by Thursday, with Fayetteville standing out as one of the few small towns on it. Other cities included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.

No other city in Arkansas was on the list Thursday. Another 23 cities around the world were listed, including cities from Sweden, Egypt and Australia.

“People keep seeing the newsabout Syria and the deaths there, and don’t know what to do about it,” Kahf said. “They want an opportunity to do something.”

Kahf happens to be one of the most widely known authors living in Northwest Arkansas.

Her books include “The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf.” This 2006 novel “turned Ms. Kahf into something of an idol among Muslim American women, especially younger ones, struggling to reconcile their faith with a country often hostile toward it,” according to a 2007 article in the New York Times.

She is also a literature professor at the University of Arkansas.

Kahf never mentioned her authorship in interviews about the Nov. 17 event. She did call on any personal contacts she has made, though: “If I’ve ever spoken to your book club or church, if you’ve ever enjoyed a line of poetry I have read, if yourson or daughter ever came to my class, if there’s ever anything I’ve done that you would like to respond to, this is the time and the day. Please come.”

The gathering’s goal is to raise awareness about the “humanitarian catastrophe in Syria and to generate funds for children impacted by the crisis, by encouraging donations to UNICEF,” the event’s announcement said. UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund. Those interested will be able to donate online at the event through credit cards or can donate by check. Cash donations will not be accepted.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Susan Shore will perform. Singer and songwriter Talina Madonna will open for her. Poet Moshe Newmark will be master of ceremonies. Event participants will be asked to sing: “For the children, hand in hand, Stop the killing in the land,” and other rally chants supporting children of Syria, nonviolence and human rights.

Petra Cafe, owned by local restaurateur Saleh Faur, will sell food. Arsaga’s Cafe, owned by supporters Cary and Cindy Arsaga, will sell hot beverages.

An estimated 40 percent of the refugees in camps or overcrowded buildings are children, Khattab said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “Thousands have lost their parents and are suffering post traumatic stress,” he said. At least the children in refugee camps can be reached by international aid, he said.Many more are trapped inside the country. An estimated 300,000 Syrians, many of them parents, are imprisoned in the turmoil there, he said. The count of children known to have died in the violence had reached 2,995 earlier this week, according to the human rights group Children at Risk.

The estimate of 368,000 refugees is very probably much too low, the Offce of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees announced Tuesday. The real number could double by the time an accurate count is finished, the office estimates.

The “Walk for Children of Syria” is an initiative of the Syrian American Alliance, with approval from UNICEF, Amnesty International and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Local sponsors include the Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. The center’s contact for this event is Gladys Tiffany, [email protected]. Omni UA: Students for Peace, Justice and Ecology also are sponsors. The contact is Andrea Love, [email protected].

Other sponsors include: Nature’s Water, a local water filtration business; the University of Arkansas chapter of the Golden Key International Honor Society; Fiddlehead Fern Therapeutics, a local business; Arsaga’s Espresso Cafe; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Fayetteville; St. Joseph’s Catholic Church of Fayetteville; and the Free Syrian Americans of Arkansas, an ad hoc group formed on Facebook.

For updates on the walks globally, check Twitter tag,#Walk4Syria. The National Walk Website is walk4childrenofsyria.org. The local event’s Facebook page, “Arkansas’ Stand for the Children of Syria in Fayetteville,” is on the web at facebook.com/ events/209650579166969/.

Kahf has lectured about the Syrian revolution at Princeton University, Georgia State University and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as at the Quakers Meeting in Fayetteville. She is an associate professor of comparative literature on the English and Middle East Studies faculties at the University of Arkansas.

Religion, Pages 10 on 11/03/2012

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